A Record Of A Mortal's Journey To Immortality

by Srtyi

A poor and ordinary boy from a village joins a minor sect in Jiang Hu and becomes an Unofficial Disciple by chance. How will Han Li, a commoner by birth, establish a foothold for himself in his sect? With his mediocre aptitude, how will he successfully traverse the path of cultivation and become an immortal? This is a story of an ordinary mortal who, against all odds, clashes with

52. 1661

Read A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality - Chapter 1661: The Corpse and the True Blood online free - Novel Full

Thus, Han Li returned to Cloud City and strode through the city gates.

Meanwhile, countless kilometers away, within a damp swap in the Golden Devil Mountain Ranges, there was a black-robed man with a dark and hideous face seated on a green rock with his legs crossed.

The man had his eyes closed, and as he slowly inhaled and exhaled, the black devilish Qi in the surrounding area swirled around him as if it possessed a mind of its own.

The man was clearly practicing some kind of mystical cultivation art, and he seemed to be completely absorbed in his cultivation.

After a long while, he took a deep breath and opened his mouth to devour all of the devilish Qi in the surrounding area, then opened his eyes with a content look on his face.

However, his expression immediately stiffened as he cast his gaze around him.

Around 10 feet away from him, there stood a woman in a long white dress. Her feet were bare and her black hair was swaying gently in the breeze as she appraised him with a smile on her face.

The woman wasn't exactly an ideal beauty. Her mouth was slightly too large to satisfy the image of a classical beauty, [1] but her eyes were as bright as stars, her nose appeared as if it had been chiseled out of the finest white jade, and her skin was as fair as snow. These captivating features made her far more alluring than the vast majority of beauties under the heavens.

After catching a clear glimpse of the woman, the man hurriedly rolled off his rocks and kowtowed as he greeted, "Sacred Ancestor! Hei'e pays his respects to the Sacred Ancestor!"

This man was none other than the Black Abyss Crocodile that had just progressed to the holy-grade not long ago.

Prior to this, he'd caught up to the old man with the Yan surname and killed him, but failed to find the immortal zoysia. As such, he returned to the location that he'd agreed to meet Ju Chu at, only to be later informed that the giant toad had been slain by Han Li.

It was completely flabbergasted by this news, but it had no choice but to leave in a dejected manner.

After that, he came to this place to cultivate and fortify his cultivation base, which had still been rather unstable following his breakthrough.

However, never would he have thought that the woman whom he'd thought was still in slumber would suddenly decide to seek him out.

With her unfathomable powers, she'd be able to kill him without even raising a single finger.

With that in mind, the devilish crocodile was completely petrified, and he didn't know whether this visit was going to spell disaster or fortune for him.

"You may rise. Hmm, you really have progressed to the holy-grade. Not bad at all! Looks like Sister Ming Luo didn't feed you all those spirit medicines for nothing. With how much she was feeding you, it was only a matter of time before you reached this level unless you possessed extremely mediocre aptitude. Looks like you've also managed to activate the evil dragon bloodline within your body," the woman chuckled.

The man's expression changed drastically upon hearing this, and a wry smile appeared on his face as he said, "You know about this as well, Sacred Ancestor?"

"Of course I do. Otherwise, Ming Luo wouldn't have fed you so much spirit medicine even if you were her favorite steed. Among all true spirit bloodlines, the evil dragon bloodline possesses the most potent devilish power. A mature and fully awakened evil dragon could even devour Heavenly Devilish Monarchs and are comparable to Heavenly Devilish Sovereigns. You've only inherited the evil dragon bloodline, but I presume that your powers aren't inferior to mid-holy-grade beings. Even if my three subordinates were to battle you one one one, they most likely wouldn't be able to defeat you," the woman said in a meaningful voice.

"You're far too kind, Sacred Ancestor; I can't compare with the likes of Fellow Daoist Xue Bi and Fellow Daoist Tie Mo," the man replied in an extremely modest manner, which was in stark contrast to his usual uncouth and arrogant mannerisms.

"Sister Ming Luo disappeared during the war in the holy realm, and we were as close as sisters before her disappearance. Seeing as you've successfully made a breakthrough, you can follow me for now. I'm preparing to go on a trip; you should make some preparations too." The woman changed the subject and cut straight to the chase.

"You're going to leave the Golden Devil Mountain Ranges?" The man was quite stunned to hear this.

"Indeed. Judging from your reaction, are you unwilling to accompany me?"

The man's forehead was immediately drenched in cold sweat upon hearing this, and he hurriedly explained, "Of course not! Being able to serve you by your side is a stroke of immense fortune for me, Sacred Ancestor!"

The woman seemed to find the man's panicked expression quite amusing, and she smiled as she said, "In that case, there's no need to prepare anything; just come with me."

"Haha, I've always been living alone, so I don't have anything to prepare anyway," the man laughed in a rather forced manner.

The woman chuckled upon hearing this, and she swept a sleeve through the air, sending a burst of pink light surging forth in all directions.

A peculiar fragrance instantly permeated through the air, and pink light enveloped the bodies of both the man and the woman.

After the pink spiritual light faded, both of them had already vanished.

The woman had unleashed her strange ability again to move herself and the man directly away from this place.

Back at the Dreamcloud Mountains of Cloud City, Han Li returned to his cave abode before immediately checking through all of the restrictions. After ascertaining that no one had infiltrated his cave abode during his absence, he slumped onto his bed and fell into a deep sleep.

Even though his journey to the Golden Devil Mountain Ranges hadn't been very long, it had been quite perilous. Not only had he expended a lot of magic power, he was also very exhausted, so he sorely required some rest and recuperation.

Thus, he slept for two days and two nights.

When he woke up again, he was completely energized and refreshed, and immediately got up before making his way toward his secret chamber.

He had reaped a lot of rewards from his recently concluded trip, and he had to sort through all of the treasures he'd obtained.

Moments later, Han Li arrived in a secret chamber that was several hundred feet in size, and he swept a sleeve through the air toward the stone door. Not only did the door close at his behest, a layer of azure light emerged from the stone walls around him, encapsulating the entire secret chamber in an azure barrier.

After doing all that, Han Li sat down on the futon at the center of the chamber in a cross-legged manner, then stroked his chin as he fell into deep thought.

Moments later, he flicked his wrist, and a streak black light shot forth from within his sleeve before hovering in mid-air right in front of him.

It was none other than his storage bracelet.

Han Li pointed a finger at the bracelet, and a certain object emerged from within it amid a flash of black light.

The object fell onto the ground with an extremely heavy thump, and it was revealed to the mummified corpse of the holy-grade devilish ape.

There was a large hole in its dantian, but there was no blood flowing from the large puncture wound, thereby creating a rather peculiar sight to behold.

Han Li looked at the dried corpse, which was several tens of feet long, and a pleased look appeared on his face.

He's already extracted the devilish core from the body of this devilish ape, and it seemed to have lost most of its blood essence, but its body was still extremely powerful. All of its bones, tendons, and ligaments were all extremely precious materials that could be used for tool refinement.

However, Han Li hadn't decided to take this corpse with him with tool refinement in mind. Instead, he wanted to extract the Giant Mountain Ape true blood contained within the devilish ape's body.

Seeing as the corpse had already dried to this extent, he wasn't sure whether he'd actually be able to extract any true spirit blood from it, but he could only try his best to do so.

For normal cultivators, extracting true spirit blood was quite a troublesome prospect. However, this was not an issue at all to Han Li, who had cultivated the 12 Awakening Transformations.

As long as the true spirit blood that he was trying to extract belonged to one of the 12 transformations, he would be able to use a secret technique that was enclosed within this cultivation art to forcibly extract true spirit blood out of a spirit beast's body.

Of course, the amount and the level of purity of the true spirit blood extracted hinged on how much of the true spirit being's bloodline the spirit beast in question had inherited, as well as how powerful the spirit beast was. After all, even if a spirit beast had only inherited an extremely small amount of a true spirit being's bloodline, they could increase the purity of the true spirit blood within their body through progressing in cultivation.

Among the true spirit bloods he'd already obtained, the purest was naturally the Kun Peng true blood from the Tian Peng Race, while the true blood of the Five-colored Peacock was the one that he'd obtained the largest quantity of.

On the other end of the spectrum, the true dragon and heavenly phoenix true spirits bloods were the ones that he'd obtained the smallest quantity of.

Those two true spirit bloods were ones that he'd only managed to obtain by chance, and they'd been extracted from the bodies of mere Deity Transformation cultivators from the two true spirit families, so the level of purity wasn't very high, either.

Among the true spirit beings, true dragons and heavenly phoenixes ranked well above the Kun Peng and the Five-colored Peacock, yet his transformations into the latter two beings were far more powerful than the former. Furthermore, among all of the information that Han Li had gleaned from the spiritual sense of the past grand elder of the Kun Peng Race, the information surrounding the Kun Peng transformation, as well as other bird-type transformations, had been far more extensive compared to other types of transformations.

As such, Han Li rarely ever used his true dragon and heavenly phoenix transformation, predominantly employing his Kun Peng and Five-colored Peacock transformations in battle instead.

The devil ape that Han Li had slain was a mid-Body Integration Stage being, so even if it barely had any blood essence left, the true spirit blood within its body was surely going to be of an extremely high purity.

As such, Han Li was naturally very much looking forward to this.

At this moment, Han Li already had his eyes closed, and he was chanting something while flicking his 10 fingers incessantly toward the massive corpse before him.

Incantation seals of different colors flew from his fingertips before disappearing into the corpse, and lights of different colors began to surface over its body.

At the same time, runes of different sizes began to emerge from the dried corpse, and as Han Li's chanting grew faster and faster, the entire corpse was enshrouded under a layer of light as if a vibrant colorful veil had been draped over it.

All of a sudden, Han Li opened his eyes, and yelled, "Rise!"

Spiritual light flashed all over the body, and it slowly rose up into the air.

A peculiar scene then ensued.

The veil of colorful light around the corpse abruptly tightened, and the light seemed to be imbued with incredibly immense power as it began crushing and compressing the body amid a string of cracks and pops.

From 40 to 30 feet down to 20 feet, then down to only around 10 feet in size...

Around 10 minutes later, the devilish ape's corpse had been compressed down to around four feet in size.

A faint smile appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this, and he laid a hand on top of his own head.

Golden and azure light abruptly flashed, following which a chubby Nascent Soul that was around three inches tall emerged.

As soon as it appeared, it focused its gaze on the devilish ape's body, and a smile appeared on its face before it opened its mouth. A stream of azure flames that was around as thick as a human finger shot forth from within, traveling directly toward the devilish corpse.

[1] [In traditional Chinese beauty standards, a woman would ideally have a small mouth. The exact term used is "樱桃小口" which literally translates to small cherry mouth, so basically a small mouth with a pair of vibrant cherry-red lips]

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As soon as the azure flames came into contact with the devilish ape, the colorful light around its body was suddenly ignited, thereby plunging the dried corpse into a ball of scorching flames.

At this moment, Han Li's Nascent Soul also sat down in mid-air in a cross-legged manner, and it closed its eyes as it made a strange hand seal.

As for Han Li's physical body, it remained completely still as if it had entered a deep meditative state.

The azure flames burned for three days and three nights at the Nascent Soul's behest. Even with Han Li's current cultivation base, he was still beginning to struggle on the final day, and the stream of azure flames became a little thinner.

Thankfully, the secret technique was finally completed at the conclusion of the third day.

An explosion rang out from within the azure flames, following which a plume of black smoke dispersed through the air. The devilish ape's corpse, which had remained completely unchanged for three days prior to this, suddenly exploded into nothingness. In its place was a shimmering fist-sized ball that was hovering inside the azure flames.

The Nascent Soul opened its eyes and cast its gaze toward the shimmering object as a smile appeared on its face. At the same time, the stream of nascent flames erupting from its mouth ceased, following which the Nascent Soul vanished amid a flash of golden and azure light.

In the next instant, Han Li's physical body also opened its eyes before sweeping a sleeve through the air.

A swath of azure light swept forth, snuffing out all of the remaining nascent flames and revealing the object inside.

This was a crystalline object that was shimmering with crimson light. Han Li narrowed his eyes as he flicked a finger, and a concentrated blast of wind erupted forth before striking the crimson crystal.

The crystal shattered with a crisp crack, and a stream of extremely viscous dark red liquid flowed out from within.

As soon as the liquid was exposed to the air, it materialized into a miniature dark red monkey that was around half a foot tall.

The monkey let loose a loud cry, and a primordial aura that was quite startling even to Han Li erupted from its body. Immediately thereafter, dark red light flashed, and the miniature monkey disappeared into the distance.

However, a dull thump then immediately rang out from one of the walls of the secret chamber as the ball of red light crashed directly into it, only to be repelled by the power of the restriction.

The red light reverted back into its monkey form before immediately flying toward another direction like a headless fly.

However, Han Li was prepared this time, and he flipped a hand over to produce a thin jade vial amid a flash of white light.

He tossed the vial up into the air, and the opening of the vial aimed itself toward a certain direction with white light shimmering faintly within it.

A plume of white threads then shot forth out of the opening, ensnaring the miniature monkey in the air before drawing it back into the jade vial with ease.

Han Li then raised an arm and made a grabbing motion, drawing the jade vial into his grasp from afar.

He injected his spiritual sense into the vial, and an excited look flashed through his eyes moments later.

"Brilliant! As expected, this really is the true spirit blood of the Giant Mountain Ape. To think that it's of such a high degree of purity as well! If I were to refine it, the resulting transformation will be even more powerful than my Kun Peng transformation," Han Li murmured to himself in an elated manner. He then made a grabbing motion again, and two talismans, one golden and one silver, appeared in his grasp before being plastered onto the jade vial.

After that, he carefully stowed the jade vial away. Even though he'd extracted the true spirit blood, he naturally couldn't refine it right away.

After blasting nascent flames at the devilish ape's corpse for the past three days, he'd expended a lot of magic power, so he had to rest and recover first.

After consuming some pills, he pulled out a pair of spirit stones from his storage bracelet before entering a meditative state.

A day later, he concluded his meditation, and his magic power had already fully recovered.

After basking in the renewed abundance of magic power in his body, he smiled as he flipped his hand over to summon a shimmering golden blade segment that was around half a foot in length.

This was naturally none other than the damaged Profound Heavenly Treasure he'd obtained from the devilish ape.

Back when he'd first obtained the treasure, he didn't get a chance to conduct an in-depth inspection, and he certainly wasn't going to bring out this treasure on the way back to Cloud City with Xian Xian by his side.

Thus, Han Li began to stroke the slightly bumpy patterns and runes on the surface of the blade segment, and a contemplative look appeared on his face.

He tried to inject his spiritual sense into it on several occasions, only to have his spiritual sense completely repelled by a mysterious force, just as what had happened when he'd tried the same thing on the Profound Heavenly Fruit. At present, the treasure had no spiritual Qi within it whatsoever, and it looked like a piece of scrap metal.

However, it was none other than this nondescript blade segment that had unleashed devastating power. If it weren't for the fact that the Profound Heavenly Fruit had been stimulated to become the Profound Heavenly Sword again, he most likely would've perished to this blade segment.

Thinking back to the astonishingly powerful attack it had unleashed, Han Li began to carefully inspect it using his Brightsight Spirit Eyes.

As expected, he was able to see directly into the blade segment using his spirit eye ability, but he wasn't able to find anything aside from countless tiny golden runes.

Han Li raised an eyebrow upon seeing this. He didn't know whether its interior had always been like this or if it had only become like this after he'd injected the power of his projection into it.

However, he merely gave a nonchalant smile a moment later.

It didn't really matter to him what the blade segment had looked like in the past as long as he could use it as one of his trump cards.

Even though he'd used the power of his true devil projection to fuel the Profound Heavenly Fruit during his battle against that devilish ape, thereby allowing him to unleash an attack without losing a vast amount of blood essence, the fact that close to half of his projection's power had been absorbed by the sword was still quite a dire consequence that would take a long time to recover from.

Besides, the Profound Heavenly Fruit had sealed itself into his arm again, and he was still unable to summon it at will, so who knew if it would appear again the next time he found himself in a dire situation?

He didn't want to depend on such an unreliable trump card to save his life.

This trump card was indeed unfathomably powerful and had even saved his life on two occasions, but it was simply too much of a gamble to continue counting on it.

In comparison, this blade segment was significantly less powerful than the Profound Heavenly Sword, but it was exactly because of this that using it would expend much less energy, and it would most likely be something that he could use at will.

With that in mind, blue light swirled within Han Li's eyes, and he was planning to give this a try.

He tossed the golden blade segment into the air, then made a hand seal, and brilliant golden light radiated from his body as golden scales surfaced over his skin.

Immediately thereafter, a shimmering golden projection with three heads and six arms appeared behind him.

At first glance, it appeared that the projection seemed to have returned to its original size, but upon closer inspection, one would discover that its body was a lot more indistinct compared to in the past, and the golden light that it was emanating was also rather faint.

As soon as the Provenance True Devil Projection appeared, one of the arms reached out to grab onto the golden blade segment.

Han Li took a deep breath, and the projection up above began to glow with scintillating golden light at his behest. At the same time, countless specks of golden light appeared in mid-air nearby, instantly filling the entire secret chamber.

Han Li let loose a low cry upon seeing this, and the projection overhead instantly swung the golden blade segment gently through the air.

A piercing screeching rang out as all of the golden light around the projection's body surged toward the blade segment in a frenzy. At the same time, the specks of golden light in the air tremored before forming a series of golden runes of different sizes.

These runes then also surged toward the blade segment as if they'd been summoned, then disappeared into it without a trace.

Thus, the entire blade segment was inundated by dazzling golden light, and the piercing screech also drew to an abrupt halt.

At this point, the projection had shrunk slightly in size.

In the next instant, the golden light around the blade segment, vanished, and the missing upper half of the blade returned, thereby temporarily repairing the weapon. Furthermore, three faint golden runes had also appeared over its surface.

Han Li looked up at the golden blade in the air, and he could sense the astonishing spiritual pressure emanating from it, as well as his magic power rapidly pouring out of his body, but a hint of elation appeared on his face.

As expected, he really could use his projection to control this treasure. Even though some of his spiritual power and the power of his projection had still been absorbed, the amount absorbed was within an acceptable range to Han Li.

All of a sudden, his eyes narrowed as he cast his gaze toward the three golden runes on the blade.

It was quite clear that these three runes were of the same type as the runes on the Profound Heavenly Sword.

"This is golden seal text. As expected, this really is a Profound Heavenly Treasure," Han Li murmured to himself, but he wasn't overly surprised by this discovery.

However, he then suddenly seemed to have sensed something, and he abruptly turned his attention to his golden protection.

There, he discovered that even though the golden light emanating from the projection wasn't surging toward the blade as rapidly as it had in the past, there were still traces of it slowly injecting itself into the golden blade.

It appeared that once this damaged Profound Heavenly Treasure adopted its original form, it would constantly absorb the essential power of his projection.

Han Li was rather taken aback upon seeing this, and his brows furrowed as he immediately pointed a finger up at the projection.

The projection immediately released the golden blade from its grasp at his behest, following which its two sets of clear faces opened their mouths in unison, blasting forth gusts of golden winds that swept up the golden blade in a flash.

A resounding boom rang out as the upper half of the blade was swept away by the winds, disintegrating into specks of golden light, which flew back toward the projection.

After absorbing those specks of golden light, the projection swelled slightly and returned to its original size.

Meanwhile, the golden blade had reverted back to its incomplete form, and it fell straight down from above.

Han Li waved a hand toward it, and golden light flashed as the blade segment vanished into thin air.

This damaged Profound Heavenly Treasure was definitely powerful enough to be considered as a new trump card, so he naturally had to stow it away carefully.

Thus, Han Li had obtained two extremely precious treasures in a row, and he was naturally very pleased.

However, that wasn't the extent of the fruits that he'd reaped from the Golden Devil Mountain Ranges.

After a brief pause, Han Li rustled a sleeve, and two more objects flew out from within before settling right in front of him.

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One of them was shimmering with golden light, while the other was radiating a faint white glow.

These were none other than a blue bead and a white jade box. The two items hovered in mid-air in a stationary manner before him. Han Li raised a hand to draw the blue bead into his grasp to find that the object was translucent and extremely smooth, as if it were made from polished glass. The pure water-attribute spiritual Qi emanating from it seemed to indicate that it was a pure water-attribute treasure.

He held the bead in between two of his fingers and inspected it over and over again with his spiritual sense, as well as his spirit eyes.

After a long while, a thought suddenly occurred to him, and a peculiar look appeared on his face.

"Could it be that legendary object?" Han Li murmured to himself before azure light flashed from his two fingers, sending a burst of pure spiritual power into the bead.

Spiritual light swirled around the bead's surface, and a burst of blue watery light erupted from it. Immediately thereafter, the blue light transformed into an extremely thin crystalline film of water that completely enshrouded Han Li's body within.

Han Li's expression changed slightly upon seeing this, and he immediately opened his mouth to blast forth a streak of azure light, which struck the water barrier in a flash.

Following a metallic clang, the azure light was repelled, and revealed to a small azure sword that was several inches in length.

It was as if the sword had struck an impenetrable fortress and was unable to leave so much as a single scratch on the water barrier. Considering how sharp and destructive his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords were, Han Li was naturally extremely surprised by this development. An incredulous look appeared on his face as he exclaimed, "This is a Glazed Water Bead!"

However, in the next instant, he recomposed himself before opening his mouth to swallow his azure sword again, then pointed a finger at the water barrier around him.

Red light flashed, and an egg-sized ball of crimson flames emerged from his fingertip before striking the water barrier in a soundless manner.

As soon as it came into contact with the barrier, the fireball was immediately extinguished without being able to unleash any of its power whatsoever.

Han Li raised an eyebrow as he swept a sleeve toward the water barrier, and a clear cry rang out as a silver and white Fire Raven emerged from within his sleeve.

The Spirit Engulfing Fire Raven flew in a circle around Han Li before spreading its wings and hurtling directly toward the water barrier.

Silver flames and blue light intertwined amid a dull thump, following which both sides tremored, and the Fire Raven was repelled.

It appeared that even his Spirit Engulfing Heavenly Flames wouldn't be able to do anything to this water barrier in a short time.

"There's no mistaking it; this really is a Glazed Water Bead!" Han Li murmured to himself before sweeping his sleeve through the air again to stow the silver Fire Raven away. He then looked down at the bead in his hand with a scorching gaze in his eyes.

However, moments later, the fanaticism in his eyes gradually faded.

"It's a pity that I'm not using a water-attribute cultivation art, so I'll only be able to use this as a normal treasure. Otherwise, if I could refine this bead and slowly absorb it, I'd be able to attain the legendary Glazed Water Body," Han Li sighed with an extremely disappointed look on his face.

If he were to attain the Glazed Water Body, he'd be able to make significantly faster progress when using any water-attribute cultivation art. Furthermore, it was said that attaining the constitution could even allow him to master a certain water domain, which was imbued with the power of the laws of heaven and earth. This was a treasure that would be extremely sought after even to Body Integration Stage beings.

Han Li waved his hand, and the blue light emanating from the bead immediately faded. The water barrier nearby reverted back into a stream of watery light that was absorbed by the bead in his hand, and he sat on the spot with a contemplative look in his eyes.

All of a sudden, a thought seemed to have occurred to him, and his eyes immediately lit up. He made a hand seal with one hand, and a blurry white shadow flew forth from his waist before transforming into a white snake that was around a foot in length.

This was none other than the sentient puppet that Han Li had named "Doll".

Due to the fact that this puppet only possessed Spatial Tempering Stage power, it wouldn't have been very useful during his battles in the Golden Devil Mountain Range, so Han Li hadn't summoned it this entire time.

After all, he valued this puppet more for its spiritual nature and its potential for further evolution, so he didn't want to damage it if at all avoidable.

With that in mind, Han Li began to chant something before pointing a finger at the puppet.

White light flashed from the snake's body, and it transformed into a beautiful woman.

The woman drifted down gently from up above while focusing ts gaze on Han Li. However, it was completely expressionless, and there was a burst of white glacial Qi emanating from its body, making it appear as if it'd been entirely constructed from profound ice.

Han Li sensed the astonishing glacial Qi emanating from the woman's body, then glanced at the blue bead in his hand with a hesitant look on his face.

"Ice-attribute power stems from water-attribute power; I wonder if getting this ice-attribute sentient puppet to carry this Glazed Water Bead for extended periods of time would be beneficial in any way," Han Li murmured to himself.

After a brief hesitation, he finally made his decision, and he tossed the blue bead toward the puppet.

The Glazed Water Bead transformed into a ball of blue light that hurtled directly toward the woman, and before even reaching the puppet, a burst of extremely pure water-attribute spiritual Qi swept toward it.

Strangely enough, after coming into contact with this rich spiritual Qi, Doll's wooden expression suddenly stirred slightly, and it turned its attention away from Han Li, focusing its gaze intently on the oncoming bead instead.

All of a sudden, it opened its mouth to expel a burst of white light, which swept up the bead in a flash before drawing the bead into its mouth.

A layer of blue light suddenly surfaced over Doll's pale face, and its brows even furrowed slightly in a rather humanized display of discomfort.

However, its expression then quickly eased, and the blue light on its face disappeared as it reverted back to its wooden expressionless self.

Han Li was naturally appraising Doll this entire time, and he stroked his chin upon seeing this, but he wasn't overly disappointed.

Even if there were benefits to be reaped by Doll from the Glazed Water Bead, there was no way that these benefits would show themselves in a short time. Even so, he didn't immediately stow the sentient puppet away. Instead, he pointed at the stone door of his secret chamber, and ordered, "I have to keep cultivating in seclusion; you're free to go anywhere in the cave abode, and you can look after my medicine garden in my stead."

The puppet didn't possess a high level of spiritual nature, but it was naturally able to comprehend such simple orders.

Furthermore, only by regularly keeping a sentient puppet around rather than storing it away somewhere could there be a possibility that its spiritual nature would develop over time; this was rather similar to nurturing spirit beasts.

Doll nodded silently before vanishing through the stone door in a wraith-like manner.

It appeared that the restriction Han Li had set up posed no impediment to it at all.

Han Li was just about to withdraw the restriction in order to allow Doll to leave, and his expression faltered upon seeing this. At the same time, he was beginning to look forward to seeing what this sentient puppet would become after tapping into its evolutionary potential.

After that, he cast his gaze toward the jade box that was hovering in mid-air.

There were several restriction talismans plastered all over the jade box, all of which were shimmering with spiritual light.

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly as he cast an incantation seal, which vanished into the jade box in a flash.

Spiritual light began to swirl around the surface of the box, following which the restriction talismans were peeled off in a soundless manner.

The lid of the box flew off of its own accord, and a ball of silver light shot forth from within before immediately flying away.

However, Han Li was already prepared for this scenario, and azure light flashed from his other hand as he made a grabbing motion.

The streak of silver light was instantly immobilized by a burst of immense invisible power, then forcibly drawn to Han Li and revealed itself to be a white jade badge.

There were many silver runes flashing all over the surface of the jade badge, and it was none other than the outer page of the Golden Jade Tome that Han Li had obtained from within the devilish ape's crimson bed.

A tool refinement method known as the Profound Heavenly Tool Refinement Technique was recorded on this page. The methods enclosed all seemed to be far too extraordinary for Han Li to attempt at his current cultivation base, but he hadn't actually had a chance to take a good look at it.

Now that he was back in his cave abode, he naturally had to study it carefully to see if he could glean some useful insights from it.

Han Li grabbed onto the jade badge before pressing it against his forehead, then seeping his spiritual sense into it. After that, he closed his eyes, and his body fell completely still.

Time passed by slowly, and Han Li remained in this state for a remarkably long time.

After over half a day had passed, his body finally stirred slightly, and he opened his eyes to reveal a hint of residual shock deep within his pupils.

"Integrated Five Extremes Mountain... I can't believe there's a refinement method that can fuse five top-grade Divine Spirit Treasures into one. That's absolutely incredible! If this method is truly feasible, as long as I have enough time and money, I really could perhaps refine an artificial Profound Heavenly Treasure! But then again, it's not very plausible to gather five top-grade Divine Spirit Treasures, even for an entire ordinary race. Refining five treasures of such a high caliber isn't very feasible, but if I can refine even two and fuse them together, the resulting treasure would still be unimaginably powerful," Han Li murmured to himself with a contemplative look on his face.

It turned out that in the final section of this Profound Heavenly Tool Refinement Technique, there were specific methods enclosed through which once could refine artificial Profound Heavenly Treasures. The other few methods all required materials that were either impossible to find in the Spirit Realm, like refined stars, or materials that Han Li had never even heard of.

Only the materials and refinement method required to refine this Integrated Five Extremes Mountain seemed to be viable in the Spirit Realm.

In order to use the refinement method, one had to at least be at the Body Integration Stage, and the materials required to refine this treasure were actual mountains.

Of course, they couldn't just be any mountain; they had to be mountains that possessed several rare attributes and special abilities.

The Divine Essencefused Mountain just so happened to be one of them.

Of course, the Divine Essencefused Mountain that he possessed still couldn't compare with the one that was stipulated on the jade page. He had to add many precious materials into it, then refine it using a special method for an extended period of time, which would significantly enhance the power of the mountain.

In any case, he possessed one of the main materials required to use this refinement method, which was why he was so tempted to explore it.

As for the other four mountains, one of them had to contain a vast amount of Greatnorth Essence Light, and the Greatnorth Essence Mountain fit that criterion.

Han Li held the jade badge in his hand and fell into deep thought again.

Han Li already had a Profound Heavenly Treasure and a damaged Profound Heavenly Treasure, so he shouldn't have been very interested in creating an artificial Profound Heavenly Treasure. However, one of the abilities of the Integrated Five Extremes Mountain was that it could nullify the power of lightning tribulations by close to half.

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Even if he couldn't gather all five mountains, refining just two or three of those mountains could still help him resist the power of his future lightning tribulations.

At present, he was already a Spatial Tempering Stage cultivator, so he had to transcend a major heavenly tribulation once every 3,000 years.

The time period in between tribulations appeared to have been extended, but major heavenly tribulations were far more devastating than the minor heavenly tribulations that Deity Transformation and Nascent Soul cultivators had to deal with. For most Spatial Tempering cultivators, they could generally safely transcend their first major heavenly tribulation, but the death began to spike with each successive major heavenly tribulation.

Those who could reach their fourth or fifth major heavenly tribulations were all old monsters who had lived for over 10,000 years, but even among them, there were only 20% to 30% of beings who would be able to transcend those tribulations.

As for the major heavenly tribulations after the fifth one, the death rate exceeded 70% to 80%.

It was said that ever since the human race had appeared in the Spirit Realm, there had been no Spatial Tempering cultivators that had managed to transcend nine major heavenly tribulations.

All beings who had transcended nine or more major heavenly tribulations were all cultivators at the Body Integration Stage or above. Even Spatial Tempering Stage beings who were far more powerful than other beings of the same cultivation base would undoubtedly perish if they couldn't reach the Body Integration Stage prior to their ninth major heavenly tribulation.

Of course, this was only applicable to human cultivators. As for metamorphosis stage demonic cultivators, their situation was quite similar to that of the human race when it came to heavenly tribulations. However, due to the differences in lifespans, cultivation arts used, and inherent aptitude among beings of different races, the intervals between heavenly tribulations and how devastating these tribulations were differed drastically.

It was said that for foreign beings that were inherently far more powerful than humans, their tribulations would only arrive once every 10,000 years, but the ferocity of these tribulations also far exceeded that of heavenly tribulations experienced by human cultivators. There were also some beings with far shorter lifespans than even humans, and their heavenly tribulations arrived once every few decades. Needless to say, these heavenly tribulations were far less devastating than those experienced by human cultivators.

After reaching the Body Integration Stage, each major heavenly tribulation became far more perilous than compared to Spatial Tempering Stage tribulations. Each major heavenly tribulation at that point was essentially a trial of life and death, and those who didn't pass would perish, while those who did would survive and experience slight boosts in their cultivation bases.

There were even some special cases where beings had broken through their bottlenecks during lightning tribulations.

As such, beings at the Body Integration Stage or above very rarely showed themselves unless there were extremely important matters they had to attend to. Almost all of their time was dedicated to cultivation and making preparations for their next trial of life and death.

Of course, major heavenly tribulations didn't consist entirely of lightning tribulations, but one thing was for certain; lightning tribulations were included in and were the main constituents of all major heavenly tribulations.

As such, the Integrated Five Extremes Mountain's ability to buffer the power of lightning tribulations was naturally extremely useful. If he could refine such a treasure, he'd essentially be significantly increasing his chances of successfully transcending future tribulations.

However, aside from the Divine Essencefused Mountain that he possessed already, Han Li had no idea where he could find the other four mountains.

Furthermore, aside from those four immensely powerful mountains, all of the secondary materials that had to be infused into these mountains were also extremely rare. Some of them were materials that Han Li had only ever heard of, yet never seen before, and that was quite disheartening to him.

After contemplating this matter in his secret chamber for a long while, Han Li's expression gradually eased. He glanced at the jade page in his hand before flipping his other hand over to produce a jade box. He placed the jade page into the box, then plastered a few restriction talismans onto the box before stowing it away.

Even though he already had the refinement method, there was no guarantee whatsoever that he'd come across any of other required mountains in the future.

As such, there was no point in becoming overly obsessed with this treasure as luck would most likely play a huge role in whether he could gather all of the required materials.

Having come to terms with this, Han Li sat in silence for a while longer before finally recovering to a completely placid mental state. After that, he rustled a sleeve, and a bracelet flew out from within.

Spiritual light radiated from the bracelet, and a ball of black light flew out from within before landing gently onto the ground.

Within the black light, there was a small black monkey that was huddled up into a motionless ball.

It was none other than the Weeping Soul Beast.

After suddenly putting on an extraordinary display of power to kill that cave spirit, which had been possessed by the soul fragment of the Heavenly Devilish Sovereign, the monkey had fallen unconscious, and was still yet to awaken.

Han Li's expression darkened slightly upon seeing this, and he made grabbing motion toward the small beast.

A burst of azure light surged forth from between his fingers, sweeping up the little monkey before drawing it to him.

Han Li's eyes narrowed as he inspected the monkey, and a series of translucent threads shot forth from his glabella before silently embedding themselves into the beast's body.

In order to ascertain the Weeping Soul Beast's current condition, Han Li had manifested threads with his spiritual sense in order to conduct a more thorough examination.

Thus, the crystalline threads disappeared into the small monkey's body, yet the Weeping Soul Beast displayed no reaction to this.

Meanwhile, Han Li's eyes were already half-closed as he began to inspect the beast's condition using those spiritual sense threads. After a long while, an incredulous look appeared on Han Li's face as he exclaimed, "Impossible! How could something like this have happened?"

Not only had the Weeping Soul Beast recovered all of the magic power it had lost, its body was a lot more powerful than before, and the magic power within its meridians had also become far more abundant. Furthermore, during the period in which he was conducting his inspection, the Weeping Soul Beast's body was still changing at a slow and steady rate.

"Is it about to evolve again?" Han Li appraised the little monkey with a perplexed look on his face. The Weeping Soul Beast hadn't devoured anything that would result in these changes, so where were these enhancements coming from? Could it be that all of this had something to do with the events that had unfolded in the Golden Devil Mountain Ranges?

Han Li was quite intrigued as he continued to inject more of his spiritual sense into the Weeping Soul Beast's body, trying to make sense of its current condition.

All of a sudden, Han Li's expression changed slightly as he exclaimed, "Wait, what's this? I'm sure it didn't have this thing in its body before!"

Deep within the Weeping Soul Beast's dantian, he'd discovered countless transparent particles that were barely visible.

These particles were extremely discreet, and each of them was only around a tenth of the size of a grain of rice. They gave off no aura whatsoever, but they'd been completely enveloped by the Weeping Soul Beast's soul-devouring light, and it seemed that they were constantly being refined.

Upon witnessing this peculiar phenomenon, Han Li almost immediately thought back to when the Weeping Soul Beast had slain the cave spirit, then devoured its soul.

Could it be that these particles were formed by the soul of the cave spirit or stemmed from the Heavenly Devilish Sovereign's soul fragment?

If that were the case, why hadn't the Weeping Soul Beast ever had such a reaction to devouring other ghostly beings in the past? Could it be... All of a sudden, a thought occurred to Han Li, and his expression changed drastically.

He hurriedly manipulated one of the spiritual sense threads within the Weeping Soul Beast's body to wrap around one of the particles in its dantian, then immediately pulled the particle out of its body.

The particle that had been drawn out of the Weeping Soul Beast's body was barely visible, and the spiritual sense thread disappeared in a flash as Han Li pointed a finger at the particle in a solemn manner.

An azure thread shot forth from his fingertip, binding tightly onto the particle before drawing it right under Han Li's eyes.

Brilliant blue light erupted from within his pupils as he activated his Brightsight Spirit Eyes to their maximal extent, then appraised the particle with an intense unblinking gaze.

After a long while, Han Li exhaled as he flipped his hand over to produce a thumb-sized jade vial.

The azure thread swayed before carrying the translucent particle into the small vial, following which the vial disappeared in a flash.

After that, Han Li quickly swept a sleeve through the air, and the spirit beast bracelet that was hovering in mid-air expelled a burst of spiritual light, which drew the Weeping Soul Beast back into the bracelet.

Han Li then stowed the treasure away before rising to his feet and hurriedly departing from his secret chamber.

Almost as soon as he emerged from behind the stone door, Han Li transmitted an instruction to Doll, asking it to look after the cave abode. Immediately thereafter, he flew through the air as a streak of azure light, appearing outside his cave abode in mere moments.

He then quickly descended to the foot of the mountain before hailing a beast-drawn carriage and giving the driver an instruction to take him to the center of the city.

During the next dozen or so days, Han Li visited all of the shops in Cloud City in which tomes were being sold, and selectively purchased a large number of tomes that he'd never paid any attention to in the past. These tomes covered a vast variety of topics, some of which detailed cultivation arts and secret techniques, while others were merely general books that introduced all types of strange objects and peculiar events.

After taking all of these tomes back to his cave abode, Han Li immediately began to read through them at an astonishing speed, as if he were trying to find something within them. After an entire night had passed, he emerged from the secret chamber with a disappointed look on his face. He then left his cave abode again and purchased another large batch of tomes from all over Cloud City.

Thus, five or six days passed by, and Han Li repeated this process day after day. The number of tomes that he'd purchased and the number of spirit stones that he'd spent on them had both reached astonishing sums.

However, after returning from another tome shopping spree, Han Li picked up an antiquated jade badge as he sat in his secret chamber, and as he swept his spiritual sense into the jade badge, an elated look suddenly appeared on his face.

"I found it! True Kirin essence is indeed something that isn't very well known, but I knew there would be some records of it on some ancient tomes," Han Li murmured to himself before focusing his attention on the jade badge again.

Thus, Han Li sat in a stationary manner, seemingly completely absorbed by the jade badge in his hand.

After a long while, he heaved a long sigh before tossing the jade badge onto the ground with an extremely dejected look on his face.

"How could this be? I can't believe I missed out on such a brilliant opportunity just like that!" Han Li sighed in a forlorn manner.

He then flipped his hand over to produce the small vial that was carrying the translucent particle.

After removing the lid of the vial, the translucent particle slowly flew out from within before hovering above the vial's opening. Han Li appraised the seemingly ordinary particle, and a wry smile appeared on his face.

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According to the information he'd gleaned from the jade badge, this so-called true Kirin essence did indeed exist, and it was formed by the wisp of chaotic Qi that appeared during the birth of true spirit beings.

If a normal being were to devour it, they'd experience incredible benefits.

The essence wouldn't be able to allow one to evolve into a true spirit being, but it could completely transform their bodies and drastically enhance their cultivation bases. It was quite possible that Spatial Tempering Stage beings that devoured it could progress straight to the Body Integration Stage.

Taking into account how rare true spirit beings were in the Spirit Realm, this type of true spirit essence was naturally also exceedingly scarce.

Furthermore, some of this true spirit essence had been tracked down and used up by powerful beings from various races already, so this substance was even rarer than true spirit beings themselves in the Spirit Realm.

According to the information in the jade badge, true spirit essence originally existed in a gaseous form, but due to the fact that the substance contained a vast quantity of essential power, it was impossible for living beings to refine it in a short time following consumption. As such, after a certain period of time, the true spirit essence would form crystalline particles within the body of the living being that had consumed it.

These particles contained true spirit level essential power, and depending on the constitutions of their consumers, it would take several decades to several centuries before it could be truly refined.

Han Li was quite ecstatic after reading through this part, but the rest of the information in the jade badge was like a bucket of cold water to the head.

It was said that after transforming into crystalline particles, the true spirit essence would've been completely assimilated by the consumer already, so there was no way for anyone else to absorb and refine it.

If someone other than the original consumer were to try and forcibly absorb the essential power within these particles, the particles would simply disintegrate and return to heaven and earth.

There was even an additional note which stated that this type of assimilation was extremely complete, meaning that there was no way to reverse it, and a warning had been enclosed to those who had obtained this essential power to keep that in mind.

Han Li was naturally completely distraught upon seeing this.

He stared blankly at the particle that had drifted out of the small vial, and a complex look appeared in his eyes.

After a long while, Han Li finally came to a decision. "The information in this jade badge may not necessarily be accurate; I have to give this a try for myself no matter what."

Thus, he made a hand seal with one hand while pointing a finger at the translucent particle, and an azure thread shot forth before encompassing the particle in a flash.

Han Li then cast several incantation seals into the azure thread, and the particle within it began to change into different colors.

In the beginning, it was completely transparent, but it then took on a faint red hue before darkening to an inky-black color. In the end, it turned into a shimmering golden color after a flash of spiritual light.

Han Li's eyes narrowed upon seeing this, and he immediately switched to another hand seal.

Many runes then emerged in the air surrounding the golden particle, and they instantly formed a miniature formation with the particle at its very center.

After that, Han Li opened his mouth to blast forth a stream of azure nascent flames, which disappeared into the miniature formation in a flash.

A dull thump rang out as all of the runes in the formation began to glow with dazzling light, and the azure nascent flames easily combined as one with the formation.

In the next instant, wisps of azure flames appeared all over the formation, enveloping the golden particle and commencing the refinement process.

Initially, the particle remained completely motionless, but as time gradually passed, the golden light on its surface began to waver, and it became brighter and brighter as a low buzzing sound rang out.

Han Li's heart sank upon seeing this, and before he had a chance to switch to another hand seal, a dull thump erupted from within the formation.

The golden particle abruptly disappeared, and an egg-sized cloud of golden mist appeared in its place.

The mist swirled around as an astonishing boom akin to a thunderclap rang out from within, following which it swelled drastically to around 10 feet in size, and it was only continuing to expand.

The azure flames around it were instantly torn apart, and the golden mist was flashing erratically, clearly having completely lost control and was about to explode at any moment.

Han Li's expression changed drastically as he thought of the fearsome power imbued within the particle, and one of his hands suddenly turned inky-black as he made a grabbing motion toward the particle.

Grey light erupted from his fingertips, forming a grey light barrier that enshrouded the golden mist within it in a flash.

Immediately thereafter, a dull rumbling sound rang out as golden and grey light intertwined with one another.

The Divine Essencefused Light then began to flash erratically as if it were about to be blown apart any moment, and it was completely unable to repress the power of the golden mist.

A fearful expression flashed through Han Li's eyes as his body hurtled backward in retreat toward a corner of the secret chamber. At the same time, he swept a sleeve through the air, and a small crystalline shield appeared up ahead.

The shield swelled to several tens of feet in size in a flash, and almost as soon as Han Li had adopted all of these measures, the Divine Essencefused Light finally exploded as countless beams of golden light erupted forth from within.

Han Li's heart immediately sank upon seeing this, and he instantly poured forth as much magic power as he could into the giant shield before him.

At the same time, golden light flashed from his body, and golden scales appeared all over his skin.

He had no choice but to withstand the force of this explosion, and as for whether his secret chamber or even his entire cave abode could remain intact in the aftermath, that was something that was known only to the heavens.

However, an unexpected scene then ensued.

After breaking through the grey light barrier, the golden mist didn't continue to swell or explode. Instead, it abruptly surged upward as a pillar of golden light, piercing through the restriction and the ceiling like a hot knife through butter.

A passageway with a radius of around half a foot was punctured into the ceiling in the blink of an eye, and the golden pillar of light disappeared in a flash.

Han Li looked up with an astonished expression on his face to find that there was sunlight shining into the secret chamber from the hole in the ceiling. Immediately thereafter, an earth-shattering explosion rang out in the air above, and all of the world's origin Qi around the entire mountain began to surge and churn violently.

Han Li's lips twitched as he raised a hand to cast a white incantation seal into the hole on the ceiling, and the hole began to seal over at a rapid rate amid flashes of white light, completely recovering in the blink of an eye.

After that, Han Li flew out of the secret chamber as a streak of azure light, and he appeared in the air above his cave abode after just a few flashes. He raised his head to look up into the sky, and his brows furrowed slightly at the sight that he was greeted by.

In the air above, bursts of fierce golden winds were howling through the sky.

Below these gusts of golden winds, countless specks of five-colored light had appeared, and they were converging from all directions, creating quite an extraordinary spectacle to behold.

Han Li's facial muscles convulsed spasmodically upon seeing this.

Thank heavens he hadn't swallowed the particle to refine it in his stomach. Otherwise, he would've most likely been blown up into smithereens already.

Of course, such a massive commotion naturally alerted the other cultivators residing on the spirit mountain as well.

Thus, spiritual light flashed all over the mountain, and many beings emerged one after another. Some banded together with their acquaintances, and all of them were pointing up at the phenomenon taking place up above while conversing spiritedly with one another.

Han Li's brows furrowed as he also appraised the gusts of fierce golden winds from down below, scrambling to think of a good excuse to explain the situation if someone were to arrive and investigate the situation.

Right at this moment, a burst of hearty laughter suddenly rang out from a certain part of the spirit mountain.

"Haha, who's experimenting with a new secret technique here? To think they'd gathered so much of the world's origin Qi, and of such a high purity as well. I'm refining a treasure that requires a vast amount of the world's origin Qi as a catalyst, so this will save me a lot of trouble."

As soon as the voice trailed off, a streak of crimson light shot forth from down below before plunging headfirst into the golden winds up above.

All of a sudden, scorching flames erupted for around ten feet out of the streak of crimson light, forming a crimson fire wyrm that was over 100 feet in length.

The fiery wyrm expelled a vast expanse of shimmering red light out of its mouth with a loud rumbling boom, and the astonishing golden winds in the sky were all completely swept away by this red light in just the span of a few breaths.

At this point, the crimson wyrm had already swelled to over 200 feet in length, and a burst of raucous laughter rant out as it transformed into a humanoid figure that was around 10 feet tall amid a flash of red light.

The humanoid figure appeared to be an elderly man in his sixties with a set of rough facial features and a head of white hair. The man wore a set of purple robes, and was appraising an item in his hand with a delighted look on his face.

This was a crimson gourd that was around half a foot tall, and there were two shimmering red images engraved on its surface, one of which was a ball of flames, while other was a ferocious looking wyrm. The image of the wyrm was completely identical to the fiery wyrm that had just appeared.

"What? It's Eccentric Xu!"

"When did that old monster come back?"

"He seems to be even more powerful than he was before."

A stir ran through many of the foreign beings down below at the sight of the purple-robed man, and many of them seemed to recognize him.

Han Li faltered slightly upon seeing this before sweeping his spiritual sense toward the elderly man to find that this was a late-Spatial Tempering Stage being.

On a spirit mountain where no Body Integration Stage beings resided, a being of his cultivation base was indeed quite formidable. However, a cultivation base of this caliber wasn't enough to draw such wary reactions from all of the Spatial Tempering Stage beings present, so Han Li was feeling a little perplexed.

However, seeing as the phenomenon created by this essential particle had been cleared away without attracting too much attention, Han Li naturally heaved a sigh of relief.

Thus, he returned to his cave abode as a streak of azure light.

Upon his return, he repaired the damaged restriction in his secret chamber, then sat down in a cross-legged manner again.

He raised a hand, and a swath of black light surged forth from within his sleeve as the Weeping Soul Beast appeared before him again.

Han Li stared blankly at the beast for a long while before finally heaving a faint sigh.

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Following that experiment he'd just conducted, he no longer had any doubts about the information in the jade badge, so he could only allow the Weeping Soul Beast to slowly absorb the true Kirin essence.

The Weeping Soul Beast was his spirit beast, so if it could experience a drastic enhancement in power after absorbing the true Kirin essence, then that was naturally worthy of celebration as well.

At the very least, it was much better than having the true Kirin essence appear several hundred years from now, then fall into someone else's hands.

With that in mind, Han Li's mental state gradually reverted back to tranquility after the emotional rollercoaster of elation followed by dejection that he'd just gone through.

Thus, he stowed the Weeping Soul Beast away into his spirit beast bracelet, then flipped a hand over to produce an ordinary-looking azure jade vial.

The vial seemed to be quite mundane and nondescript, but it was shimmering with faint azure light, and there were several restriction talismans plastered over its opening.

Han Li tossed the vial into the air before rustling a sleeve, and a dozen or so formation flags flew up into the air from within.

He then began to chant something before pointing a finger at the formation flags, and they all vanished into thin air as a dozen or so streaks of lights of different colors.

A faint yellow light barrier appeared within the secret chamber, and there were runes of different sizes hovering all over its surface.

Han Li had set up a small formation that had also encapsulated himself within it.

After doing all that, he blew gently toward the azure jade vial, and a gentle breeze swept forth.

The restriction talismans plastered over the opening of the vial were all removed by the gentle breeze, and a burst of faint spiritual light could be seen shimmering inside the vial. Han Li raised a hand and made a grabbing motion toward the jade vial, tipping it upside-down to release a strange colorful object.

This was a humanoid object that was around several inches in size, but it was completely motionless, as if it were a miniature colorful humanoid puppet.

Even though the puppet-like object wasn't moving at all, Han Li still didn't dare to get complacent. He began to chant something before casting several incantation seals toward it in quick succession.

Spiritual lights of different colors flashed from all over the humanoid puppet's body, following which it swelled drastically in size, reverting back to its original form in just a few flashes.

This was a humanoid creature that was around 20 feet tall with a vibrant green face, but limbs that consisted of four purple roots.

It was none other than the immortal zoysia that Han Li had unintentionally run into in the Golden Devil Mountain Ranges.

At this moment, there were runes of different colors all over its body, and it had been completely restricted. Its eyes were tightly shut, and it seemed to have entered a deep slumber.

Han Li's eyes narrowed slightly as he appraised this immortal zoysia with an intrigued look on his face.

It was no wonder that he was displaying such a reaction.

Han Li had witnessed spirit medicines that had taken on sentient forms in the past, and his own Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng had even manifested an extremely life-like white rabbit.

However, this immortal zoysia had manifested its entire body into an alternative form, and it was a humanoid form. This was not something that a spirit medicine of the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng's caliber could compare with.

Even so, he didn't immediately awaken this immortal zoysia. Instead, he flicked a finger, and a thin streak of sword Qi shot forth from within his sleeve before circling around one of the immortal zoysia's purple root-like limbs.

Azure light flashed, and a small gash was immediately inflicted onto the limb. A few drops of white liquid dripped out of the small gash, and a rich medicinal aroma wafted throughout the entire chamber.

Han Li's eyes lit up as he raised his other hand to hurl forth a thumb-sized vial that he'd already prepared in advance.

At the same time, he opened his mouth to expel a burst of azure light, and the azure light swept up the drops of white liquid dripping down from the immortal zoysia's limb, then carried the liquid into the small vial without wasting even a single drop.

At this moment, faint purple light flashed from the immortal zoysia's limb, and the gash instantly healed as if it had never existed at all.

However, Han Li seemed to have anticipated that this would happen, and he wasn't surprised to see this.

After that, he raised a hand, and a burst of invisible power drew the small vial containing the white liquid into his grasp, and he held the vial under his nose before taking a whiff.

"What pure spiritual power!" Han Li murmured to himself, and despite what he was saying, he didn't actually seem to be overly surprised.

Meanwhile, he made a grabbing motion with his other hand, and a ball of silver light surfaced over his other palm, and the ball of light transformed into a round bowl that was around half a foot in size in a flash.

The surface of the object was shimmering with silver light, and there were extremely beautiful and intricate patterns engraved onto it, thereby indicating that it was no ordinary bowl. Han Li tipped the small vial into the bowl without any hesitation, and a drop of white spirit liquid dripped out from within.

After that, Han Li swept a sleeve toward the ground, and his storage bracelet flew out from within before expelling a swath of light.

As the light swept along the ground, a series of boxes, vials, and other containers of different shapes and sizes appeared.

Han Li swept his gaze through the line of containers before making a grabbing motion toward one of the jade boxes.

The lid of the box flew off of its own accord, following which a thin stream of blue spirit liquid flew out from within before landing in the silver bowl.

In the next instant, another vial rose into the air and also flew directly toward the silver bowl.

Almost eight hours later, the entire secret chamber was filled with a rich medicinal aroma, and Han Li had blue light flashing through his eyes as he inspected the silver bowl in his hand in a completely motionless manner, as if he were completely absorbed by its contents.

After a long while, a wry chuckled sounded inside the secret chamber, and silver light flashed from Han Li's hand as the bowl abruptly disappeared.

"Looks like this immortal zoysia's spirit blood can serve as quite an extraordinary pill refinement ingredient, but that alone definitely doesn't make it worthy of so much interest to a Body Integration Stage being, so it looks like it must have some kind of alternative use," Han Li murmured to himself with a contemplative look on his face.

As soon as his voice fell, he turned his attention to the immobilized immortal zoysia again.

He stroked his chin for a moment before suddenly flicking his 10 fingers in quick succession, and several tens of silver threads shot forth before disappearing into the immortal zoysia's body in a flash.

After that, Han Li withdrew his hands into his sleeves again and silently appraised the immortal zoysia.

Moments later, a faint layer of purple light suddenly surfaced over the immortal zoysia's body, and its eyelids fluttered before it slowly opened its eyes, upon which it immediately met Han Li's gaze.

Its eyes were of a faint green color, there was a piercing silver light shimmering with its pupils that created quite a peculiar sight to behold.

"Looks like I was still captured after all. Can you tell me where this is?" Much to Han Li's surprise, the immortal zoysia wasn't shocked or enraged in the slightest. Instead, it was speaking in a calm and collected manner, as if it were conversing with a normal stranger, rather than its captor.

A hint of a smile appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this, and he truthfully replied, "This is Cloud City, which is not far away from the Golden Devil Mountain Ranges. Looks like you must've attained intelligence long ago for you to still be so calm in this situation."

The immortal zoysia was silent for a moment before replying, "What can I do aside from remain calm in this situation? If I beg for my life, would you release me?"

"That's true. A spirit medicine like you that is able to manifest a human form is extremely rare, even in the context of the entire Spirit Realm, so of course I won't be releasing you," Han Li replied with a smile and a nod.

A hint of surprise flashed through the immortal zoysia's eyes at the sight of Han Li's calm demeanor, but it then glanced at the limb that Han Li had inflicted a gash on earlier, and it harrumphed coldly before closing its eyes, seemingly not wanting to communicate with Han Li any further.

However, Han Li remained unfazed as he continued, "I'm quite curious; aside from using you as an ingredient to refine pills, what other purposes can you serve? There must be something else. Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many high-grade beings that are so desperate to capture you."

A hint of a derisive sneer appeared on the immortal zoysia's face upon hearing this, but its mouth remained firmly shut.

"Seeing as you've attained sentience and intelligence, you must have a soul already; you wouldn't want me to use a soul search technique, would you?" Han Li sighed.

"A soul search technique? If you think you can get the information you want by using such a technique, then be my guest," the immortal zoysia chuckled coldly.

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly upon hearing this.

In the Spirit Realm, there weren't many soul locking secret techniques like the one enclosed within the Provenance True Devil Arts, but there certainly wasn't a shortage of such secret techniques, either. This immortal zoysia clearly lived for countless years, so it wasn't all that surprising that it had mastered such a technique.

Even as these thoughts ran through his mind, his expression remained completely unchanged, so it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.

"It's alright if you don't tell me. After all, I can refine some top-grade pills using your body as an ingredient anyway. However, from what I've heard, the souls of spirit beings like you are very useful to some cultivators who are using certain special cultivation arts and secret techniques. I don't know how many years it took you to develop such a high level of intelligence, but if I were to hand you over to one of those aforementioned cultivators, all of your efforts would go to waste," Han Li suddenly mused.

"You're threatening me!" The immortal zoysia shuddered slightly before opening its eyes with a cold expression on its face.

"I wouldn't call that a threat. It's just that I took a great risk venturing into the Golden Devil Mountain Ranges, and I certainly don't want the risk I've taken to be all for nothing," Han Li chuckled in a completely emotionless manner.

A cold silver light flashed through the immortal zoysia's eyes, and it asked, "If I tell you, will you release my soul? How are you going to make me believe you?"

"Releasing your soul is naturally out of the question. It would be troublesome for me if you were to possess someone and seek revenge on me or be captured by someone else and reveal to them information about me. However, I can give you a final release so you can be reincarnated again someday. As for whether you believe me or not, do you have any other choice?" Han Li said with a smile.

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"I do indeed have no choice, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to raise any conditions!" the immortal zoysia replied in a slow voice.

"What conditions do you have? I'd be happy to hear them," Han Li said with a nonchalant smile.

The immortal zoysia seemed to have considered this matter in advance, and it immediately replied, "It's very simple; I'll tell the true purpose that my body can serve, and in return, you have to allow my soul to dissipate into heaven and earth so I can enter the cycle of reincarnation. In that case, if I do have a second life, I'll have a chance to become a being like you. However, this exchange must take place on my terms. Otherwise, I'd rather have both my body and soul perish here than be used by someone else!"

"What terms do you propose?" Han Li asked.

"I'll use a secret technique to split my soul into two, the larger portion of which will contain my autonomous will, while the remaining portion will contain some of my memories. You have to release the main portion of my soul first, and if the remaining portion sees that you've done so, it'll tell you my secret. After you get what you want, you have to release the remaining portion of my soul as well, so it can also enter the cycle of reincarnation. Thus, you won't have anything to worry about, and I can also tell you my secret without any qualms," the immortal zoysia said in an expressionless manner.

Han Li was quite tempted by this offer, but he still shook his head as he said, "I won't have anything to worry about? I'm not sure that's true! What if I were to release the main portion of your soul, only for the remaining portion to revoke your promise and refrain from telling me anything? In that case, I'd be releasing your soul for nothing?"

"Back when you captured me, I was already carrying many injuries, so even if I hadn't fallen into your hands, someone else would've captured me sooner or later. Hence, I have no vendetta against you, so I certainly wouldn't risk a portion of my soul just to spite you. After all, who knows what issues could arise if a damaged soul were to enter the cycle of reincarnation?" the immortal zoysia countered in a calm manner.

Han Li stroked his chin and appraised the immortal zoysia for a while before suddenly nodding with a smile as he said, "Alright, we'll do as you say."

"You're really willing to accept these terms so easily?" The immortal zoysia was rather taken back by how readily willing Han Li was to accept these conditions.

"Do you have a better suggestion, then?" Han Li asked with a faint smile on his face.

"No, it's just that I thought even if you were going to agree, you'd have to think about it for quite a while," the immortal zoysia explained.

"There's nothing much for me to think about. In all honesty, being able to capture you was you was a pleasant surprise in itself, so there's no need for me to be greedy and overthink things," Han Li said in a meaningful manner.

The immortal zoysia's expression changed slightly upon hearing this, but it didn't say anything in response.

"Alright, you can go ahead and unleash your soul splitting secret technique now. How much time will you require? You're not going to tell me you need several decades or even a century, are you?" Han Li asked.

"Of course it won't take that long, but it's not going to be a short time, either. I should be able to complete this secret technique within a year. However, during this time, you have to remove some of the restrictions on my body," the immortal zoysia replied in a serious manner.

"A year, eh? Alright, I can give you that much time, and I'll remove most of the restrictions on your body. However, the restrictions that remain on your body will be quite nasty, so I'd advise you not to think about running away. Of course, if you can still get away under these circumstances, then I'd have no one but myself to blame," Han Li said in a calm manner.

"Prior to being captured by you, my past injuries were already flaring up, and I'm only just barely holding myself together now; where will I get the extra energy to try and escape?" the immortal zoysia lamented with a wry smile.

Han Li chuckled upon hearing this and didn't offer a reply. He then suddenly flicked a finger, and two spirit flowers, one golden and one silver, flew out of his sleeve.

The immortal zoysia immediately focused his gaze on these two spirit flowers to find that one was a golden beetle, while the other was a miniature silver Fire Raven. Each of them was around the size of a human thumb, and they resembled intricate ornaments that had been forged from actual silver and gold.

The silver Fire Raven didn't evoke much of a reaction from the immortal zoysia, but as soon as it caught sight of the golden beetle, its expression changed drastically as it exclaimed, "Gold Devouring Beetle!"

"Oh? You recognize this spirit insect? Hehe, in that case, I'm sure you won't try to escape now," Han Li chuckled as he raised a hand and pointed a finger at the golden beetle and the silver bird.

The two creatures immediately hovered over to the immortal zoysia at his behest.

The immortal zoysia's expression changed several times in quick succession upon seeing this.

It was naturally aware of just how fearsome Gold Devouring Beetles, and this was one was a mature beetle as well. If it weren't for the fact that its body had been completely restricted, it would've most likely fled for its life already.

Han Li hadn't explained what the fiery silver bird was, but for it to have been released alongside the Gold Devouring Beetles suggested that it was clearly quite a terrifying creature as well.

The two creatures drifted over to the immortal zoysia's mouth, and it hesitated momentarily before gritting its teeth, then opening its mouth, upon which both of the creatures disappeared into its body at once. Han Li smiled upon seeing this before making a grabbing motion toward the immortal zoysia. Several tens of silver threads instantly flew out of its body before disappearing up his sleeve in a flash.

Immediately thereafter, Han Li began to chant something, and a swath of colorful light also emerged from the immortal zoysia's body, then formed a series of five-colored talismans that disappeared into thin air.

Silver light flashed through the immortal zoysia's eyes upon seeing this, and brilliant purple light suddenly began emanating from its body. Meanwhile, the green light radiating from its face dimmed significantly, and its four root-like limbs transformed into normal human limbs amid a flash of purple light.

"Tsk tsk, as expected of a spirit being of your caliber; even after sustaining such severe injuries, you were still able to recover to such an extent on your own." Han Li clicked his tongue in wonder.

"You have a medicine garden in here, right? Let me take root in your medicine garden. In doing so, I'll be able to draw upon the spiritual Qi released by the spirit medicines nearby to accelerate the completion of my soul splitting secret technique," the immortal zoysia asked.

"Of course I do. Come with me," Han Li replied with a nod.

This was what he was going to propose anyway as getting the immortal zoysia to stay in the medicine garden would mean that Doll would be able to constantly keep an eye on it. In any case, this immortal zoysia didn't possess a powerful cultivation base. On top of that, it was severely injured and the cave abode had powerful restrictions set on it, so Doll's early-Spatial Tempering Stage power should be more than enough to keep it in check.

With that in mind, Han Li rose to his feet before sweeping an arm through the air. A burst of azure light flashed past, clearing away all of the containers on the ground.

At the same time, a burst of white light flashed from the surface of the stone door, and it swung open on its own.

Han Li immediately made his way out of the secret chamber, and after a brief hesitation, the immortal zoysia followed.

As soon as he emerged from the secret chamber, he was met by a completely expressionless woman standing outside with faint glacial Qi emanating from her body. This was none other than the sentient puppet, Doll, that Han Li had summoned using his spiritual sense.

Doll extended a respectful bow toward Han Li before standing up straight in a wooden manner again.

Han Li nodded and didn't say anything as he made his way toward the medicine garden.

Seeing as how rare cave abodes were in Cloud City, Han Li medicine garden naturally wasn't very large; it was only around 2,000 to 3,000 feet in size.

However, as the immortal zoysia followed him into the medicine garden, a pleased look appeared on its face as it remarked, "Not bad. The place isn't very big, but the spiritual Qi here is very rich; you've picked a good place, Fellow Daoist."

"Hehe, it's not that I've picked a good place; the abundance of spiritual Qi is pretty much the same all over this entire spirit mountain. You can find any place you like to take root in," Han Li replied with a nonchalant chuckle.

"Is that so? Then don't mind if I do." The immortal zoysia nodded before its body swayed, and it entered the medicine garden ahead of Han Li.

A faint smile appeared on Han Li's face as he also entered the garden in an unhurried manner, followed closely by Doll.

As the immortal zoysia walked through the medicine garden, it scanned its gaze through the surrounding area, and a hint of surprise appeared on its face.

Setting aside how precious the spirit medicines in this garden were, close to half of them were over 10,000 years old, and among the remaining spirit medicines, many of them were still over 1,000 years old or even several thousand years old.

The entire medicine garden was filled with all types of rich medicinal aromas, and if a mortal were to stay in here for even a short while, it was quite possible that all of their existing ailments would be completely alleviated.

The immortal zoysia was quite stunned by this, and it was immediately tempted to examine the entire medicine garden. As such, even after crossing through the center of the garden, it still continued onward.

Han Li merely followed along behind it in an expressionless manner.

As aforementioned, the medicine garden wasn't very large, and moments later, the immortal zoysia was close to reaching its conclusion.

Right at this moment, a white shadow flashed, and a creature that was around half a foot in size suddenly jumped out of a patch of spirit medicines nearby.

It then began to skip toward another direction, and the immortal zoysia was quite intrigued to find that this was a large snowy-white rabbit.

It was none other than the Rabbit manifested by the soul of Han Li's Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng.

All of a sudden, the immortal zoysia seemed to have realized what this rabbit was, and an expression of shock and elation appeared on its face as it exclaimed, "What's this?"

"Why do you seem so surprised, Fellow Daoist? Have you not seen other spirit medicines like you that have manifested sentient forms?" Han Li was rather taken aback by its vehement reaction.

"Of course not. Spirit medicines like me have so many natural predators and we're almost completely defenseless against them. Even among tens of thousands of spirit medicines, it's hard to say if even one will reach the stage where it attains sentience," the immortal zoysia hurriedly replied before rushing off in pursuit of the white rabbit.

After walking for just over 100 feet, the immortal zoysia arrived at a secluded place within the medicine garden, and it was also the spot where the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng was situated.

The white rabbit that was manifested from its soul was currently sitting at the foot of the plant, nibbling on a large root that it had dug out somewhere from the medicine garden. At the sight of Han Li and the others, the rabbit merely cast an errant glance toward them with its ruby-like eyes, then continued to nibble on its food as if there were no one around.

Thinking back to how terrified of him it had once been, Han Li couldn't help but chuckle at the contrast in its past and current demeanors.

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Meanwhile, the immortal zoysia was appraising the white rabbit with a gentle look in its eyes. It suddenly stepped forward and made a grabbing motion, upon which a swath of purple light surged forth from its hand, sweeping up both the rabbit and the root that it was eating and drawing them toward it.

The white rabbit continued to nibble on its root within the purple light, as if hadn't noticed that anything was amiss.

The immortal zoysia stared at the white rabbit for a while before extending a hand into the purple light to try and stroke it.

However, before its fingers could make contact with the rabbit's furry body, the latter vanished through the air amid a flash of spiritual light, leaving a trail of afterimages in its wake.

In the next instant, the white rabbit appeared on the ground again, and it had risen up on its hind legs. At the same time, its snowy-white fur also stood up on end, and it barely its little teeth at the immortal zoysia in what it presumably thought to be a menacing display.

It was quite clear that the immortal zoysia's actions had rubbed the rabbit the wrong way.

However, the immortal zoysia merely smiled in response, and its aura suddenly changed as the light emanating from its body changed from purple to a vibrant green color.

A burst of rich wood-attribute spiritual Qi radiated from its body, and after coming into contact with this spiritual Qi, the white rabbit suddenly faltered in its menacing display. After taking a whiff of the air around it with its little pink nose, its expression eased significantly, and there even seemed to be a hint of affection in its eyes as it cast its gaze toward the immortal zoysia again.

"Come here, little guy." The immortal zoysia clapped its hands together before opening its arms in an inviting manner.

The white rabbit seemed to be able to comprehend what the immortal zoysia was saying, and after a brief hesitation, it really did jump into the immortal zoysia's arms.

The immortal zoysia was elated, and began carefully stroking the white rabbit's head.

The white rabbit's eyes narrowed with enjoyment in response, and it stuck out its little red tongue to lick the immortal zoysia's fingers.

As the immortal zoysia stroked the rabbit's head, it turned to Han Li with a serious look on its face, and said, "This is splendid! Looks like it's not far away from attaining intelligence. Fellow Daoist Han, seeing as this brethren of mine is able to move around so freely in your medicine garden, it's quite apparent to me that you're taking great care of it. In that case, you wouldn't mind if I assisted it in attaining intelligence and taught it some things, would you?"

"You can help it attain intelligence?" Han Li was rather surprised to hear this.

"Indeed. I am a spirit medicine that has attained intelligence, and there are some abilities and cultivation arts that I've mastered that can only be inherited by my brethren. If it could learn everything that I want to teach it, it'll be able to avoid making a lot of the mistakes I made in the past. If it can also manifest a human form like me, I'm sure it'll be of great assistance to you in the future," the immortal zoysia replied in a slow voice.

After looking at the immortal zoysia for a long while, Han Li finally nodded, but he also stated some conditions of his own. "I can allow you to do that, but my puppet has to be present to supervise whatever you do to it. On top of that, this puppet will be accompanying you closely at all times."

"No problem at all. There's nothing secretive or malicious about what I want to do," the immortal zoysia immediately agreed.

"Alright, then I have no further issues either. You can rest here for the next year or so, and if you have any requests, just notify my puppet," Han Li said as he waved a hand through the air, and Doll immediately stepped forward to join him.

"From this day forth, stay with this fellow Daoist at all times, and don't leave him unattended for even a single moment," Han Li ordered in a serious manner.

The sentient puppet didn't possess a very high level of spiritual nature, but it was naturally able to understand such simple instructions.

As such, Doll nodded in an expressionless manner to acknowledge Han Li's commands.

The immortal zoysia chuckled upon seeing this, and it flicked a wrist to send forth a streak of purple light that carried the white rabbit gently back onto the ground.

After that, it made its way over to a spot that was several tens of feet away from the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng, then spread its feet apart. Green light flashed all over its body again, and its four limbs reverted back into their purple root form before burrowing straight into the ground.

At this moment, the immortal zoysia's entire body took a translucent green hue.

Han Li stood on the spot and appraised the immortal zoysia for a while before departing from the medicine garden with a faint smile on his face.

Even though he was very curious about the mysterious uses of the immortal zoysia, there was something else that he had to attend to for now; the date that Xian Xian had agreed to repair his suit of Heavenly Devilish Armor was about to arrive. Han Li was also very much looking forward to this.

As a safety precaution, Han Li released his Leopard Kirin Beast and second Nascent Soul, then activated all of the restrictions in his cave abode before departing.

Several hours later, the beast-drawn carriage that he had hailed arrived before Xian Xian's shop. The doors of the shop were tightly-shut, and it seemed to not be accepting any customers.

Han Li raised a hand upon seeing this, and a burst of fiery light suddenly flew out of his sleeve before disappearing through the doors in a flash.

After that, he continued to wait patiently outside.

Moments later, the doors opened amid a gentle creak, and Xian Xian's soft voice sounded from inside.

"You sure are punctual, Brother Han; half a month has only just passed, and you've already come to visit me."

"Hehe, I'm quite eager to get his armor repaired; my apologies if I come across as a little impatient," Han Li chuckled as he strode into the shop.

The doors closed behind him on their own, and Xian Xian stood at the center of the shop as she turned to Han Li with a smile on her face.

As soon as Han Li made his way over to her, Xian Xian made a hand seal to activate her formation plate.

Spiritual light flashed, and both of them abruptly disappeared from the shop, having been teleported directly into Xian Xian's spatial rift.

Han Li made his way out of the teleportation formation before looking around, and his gaze immediately settled on a certain corner of the space.

There, a large formation with a radius of over 100 feet had been set up. The entire formation was inky black, and there were a dozen or so black crystals embedded into the ground all around it.

At the very center of the formation was an azure copper cauldron that was around five feet tall, and there were complex runes carved all over its surface, as well as faint white mist emanating from it.

Several feet in the air above the cauldron was a fist-sized object that was enshrouded in white mist. The object was hovering in a completely stationary manner and radiating dazzling black light.

Han Li's eyes narrowed upon seeing this.

The object above the cauldron had changed slightly in appearance, but there was no mistaking the frosty devilish Qi emanating from it; it was none other than the holy-grade devilish core of that devilish ape.

At this point, the devilish core had completely crystallized, giving it the appearance of a shimmering black crystal.

Xian Xian also made her way out of the teleportation formation, and smiled as she said, "What do you think, Fellow Daoist? I certainly haven't been slacking off these past few days. I had to expend a lot of effort and precious materials to completely wipe away all traces of the holy-grade devilish ape's soul from this devilish core, and also make the devilish Qi it contained less volatile and difficult to control."

"Oh? From the sounds of it, you're preparing to completely refine this devilish core rather than embed it into the suit of armor," Han Li mused as he stroked his chin.

"I didn't think you'd be so knowledgeable in tool refinement as well, Brother Han. Indeed, that is my intention. Embedding the entire devilish core into the suit of armor will repair the largest few cracks on it, but I won't be able to address the smaller and finer cracks then. I'm sure you wouldn't want to wear a suit of armor with glaring chinks in it, right, Brother Han?" Xian Xian explained with a rather surprised look on her face.

"I only know a little about tool refinement, so I'll leave everything to you, Fellow Daoist. I'm very confident in the tool refinement techniques of the Crystal Race," Han Li said with a smile.

Xian Xian merely smiled upon hearing Han Li's modest response, and she continued, "While I'm repairing this suit of armor, I'll have to activate the restriction in this space, and I may also need you to lend me a hand. If everything goes smoothly, we should be able to complete the repairing process in about three days."

"Three days is certainly not a long time, and this treasure is being repaired for me, so it's only right that I lend you my assistance." Han Li had no objections whatsoever.

"In that case, let's begin right away." Xian Xian didn't seem to want to keep wasting time with words, either, as she raised a hand into the air. The formation plate that she was carrying rose up into the air, then rotated on the spot above her head.

Spiritual light flashed as incantation seals of different colors swept forth from the formation plate, then disappeared into various locations in the spatial rift.

In the next instant, fierce winds suddenly swept through the air up above, and oppressive dark clouds surged forth in a frenzy. At the same time, a dull ringing sound rang out from the walls of the space before layers of grey Qi began to surface.

Thus, the entire space was immersed in complete darkness so potent that one couldn't see their fingers even if they were to hold them up to their face. It was as if this space had been plunged into a devilish realm.

Han Li swept a sleeve through the air upon seeing this, and an egg-sized ball of white light flew out his sleeve before revolving around him, thereby making the surrounding area a lot brighter.

At this moment, Xian Xian was already making her way toward the large formation. Han Li didn't say anything upon seeing this, but his body swayed as he took what appeared to be two slow and measured steps.

However, he then suddenly appeared behind Xian Xian in the next instant, as if by instantaneous teleportation.

Xian Xian seemed to be completely oblivious to what was happening behind her, and she merely raised a hand to cast an incantation seal toward the formation up ahead.

A low buzzing sound instantly rang out, following which the entire formation activated amid a swirl of black light.

Han Li's expression changed slightly at the sight of the scenes unfolding before his eyes. He had yet to decipher the purpose of this formation, but the bursts of devilish Qi emanating from the formation were very pure indeed. Thus, he was left feeling rather curious about where Xian Xian had sourced so much devilish Qi from.

Right at this moment, Xian Xian suddenly began to chant something, following which brilliant azure light erupted from her body. An azure Kirin projection that was several tens of feet in size then suddenly appeared behind her.

Initially, the Kirin projection remained completely still, but as Xian Xian's chanting gradually grew more urgent, the protection finally slowly opened its mouth to expel a head-sized ball of flames.

The fireball was quite peculiar in that it was both black and azure in color, and it struck the copper cauldron at the center of the formation in a flash.

A layer of scorching black and azure flames immediately surfaced all over the cauldron as a result.

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"Bring out your devilish armor, Brother Han," Xian Xian said as she turned to Han Li with a solemn look on her face.

Han Li naturally had no objections to this. As such, he flipped a hand over to produce a jade box that was around a foot in size, upon which were plastered a pair of restriction talismans.

He swept a sleeve over the box, to remove the talismans and its lid, and a burst of black Qi immediately surged forth from within in a frenzy.

Within the black Qi, a suit of purple armor that was around half a foot slowly emerged.

Not only was it extremely sinister in appearance, there were several spikes protruding from the shoulder and knee sections of the armor. On top of that, its entire surface was filled with black patterns, and it was emanating immensely powerful devilish Qi. However, there was a large hole on the chest of the suit of armor, and the surrounding area was riddled with cracks, clearly indicating that it had been severely damaged.

Xian Xian's expression changed slightly at the sight of the black Qi surging forth from the suit of armor, and she waved a hand through the air to conjure up a translucent light barrier before pointing a finger at the box from afar.

The purple suit of armor drifted slowly toward the formation at her behest, seemingly having been summoned by some kind of invisible power.

Before the suit of armor reached the center of the formation, Xian Xian raised a hand to cast a silver incantation seal, which disappeared into the copper cauldron in a flash.

A dull clang akin to the toll of a large bell instantly rang out from within the cauldron, and the black and azure flames burning around it instantly swelled to sweep up the suit of armor and draw it into the cauldron.

Immediately thereafter, a string of rumbling booms akin to thunderclaps rang out from within the cauldron, following which the intricate black patterns on it surface began to flash and glow.

At the same time, black Qi began to surge throughout the entire formation down below, and faint silver runes emerged from various locations all over the formation. As soon as these runes appeared, they surged toward the cauldron in a frenzy before vanishing into it.

After that, Xian Xian began to chant something in a low voice again while making a hand seal. The ground near the formation began to tremor violently, and piercing yellow light suddenly flashed from its four corner, following which a yellow stone platform emerged from each corner.

These platforms were around 10 feet tall each, but all of them were extremely smooth, and there was a small black flag standing on each of them.

Around the flags were containers of all shapes and sizes, and Han Li's expression changed slightly upon seeing this before quickly reverting back to normal.

As Xian Xian continued to chant her incantations, the four flags swelled to 50 to 60 feet in size, and only then did Xian Xian withdraw her hand seal as she turned to Han Li, and said, "Let's begin, Fellow Daoist Han. During this repair process, all you have to do is listen to my instructions and inject your magic power into those four devilish flags in a timely manner."

"No problem," Han Li immediately replied with a quick nod. A pleased smile appeared on Xian Xian's face upon hearing this, and she pointed a finger up at the formation plate hovering in mid-air again. A long cry immediately rang out within the formation plate, following which countless incantation seals surged forth, all of which disappeared into the dark clouds up above. The grey Qi emanating from the walls also began to permeate through the air, and within mere moments, Han Li and Xian Xian were both inundated by this grey Qi. Time passed by slowly, and three days flew by in the blink of an eye.

The doors of Xian Xian's shop were abruptly flung open, and a humanoid figure strode out from within before hailing a beast-drawn carriage and departing in an unhurried manner.

At this moment, within the spatial rift in the shop, Xian Xian was standing at the edge of the formation, staring blankly at the copper cauldron up ahead.

The surface of the cauldron was riddled with countless thin cracks, and the formation down below was also in a very sorry state with a small section of it having been completely destroyed.

The black crystals embedded into the ground around the formation had all been reduced to powder, and in the air above Xian Xian, the Kirin projection had shrunk down to only around a foot in size.

Both Xian Xian and the Kirin wore contemplative looks on their faces, seemingly in deep thought about something.

After a long while, the Kirin projection finally sighed, "That suit of devilish armor most likely has some history behind it; there's no way that something like that would've happened when repairing a suit of armor belonging to a normal Heavenly Devilish Monarch."

"Indeed. After the suit of armor was repaired, it drew the spiritual sense from a devilish being of another realm, and that being almost manifested a devilish body using the devilish Qi gathered here," Xian Xian replied as a hint of lingering fear flashed through her eyes.

"It's a good thing that Han brat possesses Divine Devilbane Lightning and was able to disperse the devilish Qi that was gathering. Otherwise, we'd be in a lot of trouble," the Kirin projection mused in a grim manner.

"Seeing as that devilish being was able to force its spiritual sense through to this realm from an alternate realm, it most likely possesses powers comparable to a true spirit being. Could it be that there's more than meets the eyes with this suit of armor? But after repairing the suit of armor, and I didn't discover anything amiss with it," Xian Xian said with furrowed brows."There wasn't enough time for me to identify anything, either. If we'd known this earlier, you should've never given this suit of armor away. After repairing it, you could've fabricated an excuse to keep it, then use some other treasures to reimburse him instead," the azure Kirin projection suddenly said.

"I did indeed want to do that. However, even though he seemed quite calm when dispersing that devilish Qi, I could sense that if I were to refuse to hand the suit of armor over to him, he would've most likely killed me on the spot without any hesitation. His powers are virtually comparable to that of holy race beings, and I've used up almost all of my life-saving treasures in the Golden Devil Mountain Ranges, so there's a very good chance that I would've died had he turned on me," Xian Xian replied with a wry smile.

"It's a pity that I exhausted so much of my energy in the Golden Devil Mountain Ranges as well. Otherwise, if we were to draw on the power of the spatial restriction here, it's not impossible that the two of us would've been able to force him to leave the armor here," the Kirin projection also said in a rather gloomy manner.

Xian Xian's expression changed a few times before she finally took a deep breath, and said, "So be it. No matter how powerful that suit of armor is, the fact of the matter is that it's a devilish treasure, so there's no way I would've been able to use it anyway. As such, it wouldn't be worth offending such a powerful being to try and keep it."

The Kirin projection was silent for a moment before heaving a resigned sigh. "Hehe, it's good that you can think that way. I guess we'll just have to concede here. As for whether the secrets behind that suit of armor will eventually be unveiled, that'll be up to his luck. It's just a pity that you'd missed out on the opportunity to make use of that suit of armor in the future."

"With you by my side, will I have a shortage of opportunities?" Xian Xian chuckled, seemingly having already come to terms with the current situation.

"That's true. What you're missing now aren't opportunities. Instead, you have to advance your cultivation base as quickly as possible. Otherwise, you won't be able to grasp any opportunities that you encounter anyway. By the way, did you find the thing that I asked you to search for?" The Kirin projection suddenly changed the subject.

"Not yet. It's said that only a few holy race old monsters know of its whereabouts, so it'll be quite hard to track down," Xian Xian replied with a troubled look on her face.

"You'll have to find a way. Without that thing, you won't even be able to enter those ancient ruins," the Kirin projection urged.

Xian Xian was silent for a moment before replying, "I'm well aware of that. I'll see if I can buy or borrow it from one of the juniors of those old monsters."

Just as Xian Xian and the Kirin projection were discussing their future plans, Han Li was on his way back to his cave abode.

He was seated with a calm expression on his face in the beast-drawn carriage, but he was actually nowhere near as calm as he looked.

Never would he have thought that repairing the suit of devilish armor would have led to such a perilous situation.

All of a sudden, he reached a hand up into his other sleeve and grabbed onto a lukewarm object.

This was a jade box that the newly repaired suit of Heavenly Devilish Armor had been placed into, and he'd plastered over 10 restriction talismans all over the box.

Han Li's stored the jade box with his finger, and he couldn't help but recall back to the scenes that had unfolded in Xian Xian's spatial rift.

The first half of the armor's repair process had been quite smooth, but a series of issues began to arise during the second half of the process. These were issues such as the formation suddenly ceasing to function for no reason, and cracks appearing all over the cauldron, also due to no discernible reason. Thankfully, the two of them were able to resolve these issues.

However, never would they have thought that just as the final repair procedure was about to be completed, an extremely powerful burst of spiritual sense suddenly forced its way into the spatial rift, then immediately surged toward the suit of devilish armor.

Due to how abruptly everything had happened, Xian Xian was momentarily rooted to the spot.

Thankfully, this wasn't the first time that Han Li had witnessed inter-realm spiritual sense of this nature, and he immediately dispelled it using his Divine Devilbane Lightning.

Generally speaking, even if a burst of inter-realm spiritual sense were to fail to achieve its objective, it could still immediately tear through space and escape. However, perhaps the owner of the spiritual sense was intent on obtaining that suit of armor, or perhaps they didn't think two Spatial Tempering Stage beings would've been enough to pose a threat to it. In any case, as opposed to retreating, the burst of spiritual sense plunged into the pure devilish Qi within the formation, then tried to manifest a devilish body.

Of course, Han Li wasn't going to allow it to get its way. Thus, he released all of the Divine Devilbane Lightning within his body at once, striking the devilish being with a devastating barrage.

The devilish being was naturally unfathomably powerful, and even a wisp of its spiritual sense that hadn't manifested into a devilish body could withstand a dozen or so bolts of Divine Devilbane Lightning with ease. However, hundreds of arcs of golden lightning had been unleashed at once by Han Li, and the devilish being's spiritual sense didn't even get a chance to cry out before it was zapped into nothingness.

Through that event, both Han Li and Xian Xian were made aware of the fact that this suit of devilish armor seemed to be far more powerful than they'd originally expected.

Han Li had obviously also identified the hesitation in Xian Xian's eyes at the time, and even though his expression remained quite calm, he was ready to attack at a moment's notice if she tried to go back on her word.

As a result, even though Xian Xian was clearly extremely reluctant to part with the suit of devilish armor, she could only look on as Han Li stored it away into a jade box.

Thus, Han Li's impression of her improved slightly once again, but he didn't stay there for much longer. After extending a few words of gratitude to Xian Xian, he left her spatial rift before departing on a beast-drawn carriage.

And thus, the story came full circle. He was currently sitting in the carriage while stroking the jade box up his sleeve, and he was becoming more and more curious toward this suit of devilish armor.

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Of course, now would not be a good time to bring out the suit of armor to study it as he was sitting in a beast-drawn carriage. As such, Han Li could only repress his curiosity and stow the jade box away before entering a meditative state.

Several hours later, the beast-drawn carriage arrived at the foot of the spirit mountain.

Han Li disembarked before tossing a spirit stone to the driver, then flew up the mountain in a calm manner.

His cave abode was situated around halfway up the mountain, and all of the cultivators that with cave abodes here were either almost constantly away or arduously cultivating in their cave abodes. As such, it was relatively rare to see anyone on this mountain.

However, as Han Li was flying toward his cave abode, he was quite surprised to discover a pair of uninvited guests outside.

One of them was a red-robed man who appeared to be in his sixties; this was none other than the Eccentric Xu who had used his crimson gourd to absorb all of the world's origin Qi gathered in the aftermath of the true Kirin essence's explosion.

The very same crimson gourd was hanging from his waist, and standing next to him was a young boy who appeared to be around 14 to 15 years old with a set of fine and delicate facial features.

Both of them were sitting outside the stone door of his cave abode with their eyes closed in meditation, and Han Li was naturally quite surprised to see this.

All of a sudden, Eccentric Xu opened his eyes as if he'd sensed Han Li's return, and he smiled as he asked, "You're the Fellow Daoist Han who just moved in recently, right?"

Han Li recomposed himself before asking in a polite manner, "That's right. Were you waiting for me, Fellow Daoist Xu?"

All of the Spatial Tempering Stage beings on the entire spirit mountain were clearly quite wary of this Eccentric Xu, so he had to be quite a powerful being. As such, Han Li naturally didn't want to get on his bad side.

"Hehe, I am indeed here to pay you a visit, Fellow Daoist Han. This here is one of my direct lineal descendants. Pay your respects to Fellow Daoist Han." To Han Li's surprise, Eccentric Xu seemed to be quite eager to introduce this junior of his to him for some reason.

"Junior Xu Lunxiang pays his respects to Senior Han," the young boy immediately greeted in a respectful manner.

"There's no need for formalities." Han Li had already ascertained with his spiritual sense that this young boy's cultivation base was at the pinnacle of the Foundation Establishment Stage, so he was only one step away from the Core Formation Stage. For a cultivator of his age, that was a reflection of outstanding aptitude.

"You don't find my visit too abrupt, do you, Fellow Daoist Han?" Eccentric Xu chuckled.

"Not at all. It's my honor to host you at my humble cave abode, Fellow Daoist Xu. If it weren't for the fact that I had some matters to attend to during these past few days, I would've welcomed you into my cave abode right away. Please come in, Brother Xu." Han Li was still rather perplexed by this situation, but his expression remained unchanged as he swept a sleeve toward the stone door of his cave abode.

A burst of azure light swept forth, and the stone door opened on its own in a soundless manner to reveal a shimmering white passageway that was paved with beautiful white jade.

Eccentric Xu expressed his gratitude toward Han Li's hospitality before making his way into the passageway with the young boy right behind him.

After entering his cave abode, Han Li immediately released his spiritual sense to contact the second Nascent Soul that he'd left here.

Thus, he learned that nothing had happened during these past three days aside from Eccentric Xu's visit, and he was quite relieved to hear this as he led Eccentric Xu and his junior into the hall.

After exchanging some pleasantries, Eccentric Xu and Han Li each took a seat, but the young boy continued to stand behind Eccentric Xu wit his hands hanging by his sides.

After sitting down in his chair, Eccentric Xu said, "Truth be told, Fellow Daoist Han, I've been in seclusion for a long time, and I've only recently re-emerged. Not long after that, I heard that a new fellow Daoist had moved in to this spirit mountain, and I heard that Elder Qian Jizi of the Myriad Ancient Race had organized your cave abode in person. May I ask if you're related in some way to Elder Qian Jizi?"

"Hehe, I'm just an outsider; how could I be related to Senior Qian Jizi in any way? It's just that I saved the life of a fellow Daoist from the Myriad Ancient Race a few years ago, and that fellow Daoist just so happened to be quite close with Senior Qian Jizi," Han Li replied in a calm manner.

"I see. That makes sense. After all, the Myriad Ancient Race is ranked quite high among the 13 Heavenly Cloud Races, and Senior Qian Jizi is an elder of the Myriad Ancient Race, so he can certainly organize for you to settle in Cloud City without ant issues," Eccentric Xu chuckled.

Han Li merely smiled and offered no response.

He knew that this Eccentric Xu had to be visiting him for a reason, and he was most likely going to elaborate on the purpose of his visit next.

As expected, Eccentric Xu suddenly adopted a rather serious expression as he said, "Truth be told, I decided to visit you on this occasion because I have some questions I'd like to ask you. Please forgive me for my unannounced intrusion."

Han Li immediately became slightly more guarded upon hearing this, but he still smiled, and replied, "There's no need to be so polite, Brother Xu. Cultivators like us are all straightforward beings, so feel free to tell me if you need something from me. If I know the answer to your question, I'll be sure to reveal them."

"In that case, I won't waste any more time," Eccentric Xu said with a smile.

After a brief pause, a serious look appeared in his eyes again as he asked, "Were you responsible for the astonishing phenomenon that took place a few days ago on our mountain?"

Eccentric Xu fixed an intense unblinking gaze on Han Li as he spoke.

Han Li's heart stirred slightly upon hearing this, but his expression remained unchanged as he asked with a smile, "Why do you think that phenomenon had something to do with me."

"It's quite simple; the phenomenon spanned quite a massive area, but it wasn't all that difficult for me to identify the epicenter of the explosion. On top of that, I just so happened to be taking a stroll outside my cave abode as I was getting rather frustrated with some aspects of my cultivation, and coincidentally, I saw a beam of golden light flying out from somewhere near your cave abode right before the explosion took place," Eccentric Xu revealed in a truthful manner.

Han Li's brows furrowed reflexively upon hearing this, but he then quickly put on a smile as he said, "Seeing as you've already witnessed everything, then there's nothing for me to hide. I did indeed unintentionally create that phenomenon a few days ago. Come to think of it, I have to thank you for cleaning up all of the world's origin Qi that gathered over the mountain as a result. Otherwise, I would've had to clear away everything myself."

Eccentric Xu was quite elated to hear this, and he hurriedly asked, "So you really were responsible for creating that phenomenon! That's fantastic! Would you be able to replicate the same phenomenon again, Brother Han?"

"Replicate that phenomenon? Why would you want me to do that? Would you be able to enlighten me, Fellow Daoist Xu?" Han Li asked with a perplexed look on his face.

Eccentric Xu initially faltered slightly upon hearing this before suddenly bursting into laughter as he said, "Of course. Fellow Daoist Han, have you managed to identify which of the 13 Heavenly Cloud Races I hail from?"

Han Li narrowed his eyes and appraised the old man for a while before a wry smile appeared on his face. "Er... I'm afraid that's beyond a being with a cultivation base as lowly as mine."

No matter how he looked at this Eccentric Xu, he was completely identical to a normal human being, and there were no characteristics that revealed which race he was from.

"It's no surprise that you weren't able to identify me, Brother Han. After all, us Cloud beings have always been extremely proficient in concealment and disguise techniques, and even beings with higher cultivation bases than us wouldn't be able to glean our true forms if we insist on hiding them. It's just that I'm a bit of an anomaly in my race in that I cultivate an extremely Yang-oriented fire-attribute cultivation art, so my proficiency in disguise techniques is rather lacking compared to my brethren of the same cultivation base. As such, some of the fellow Daoists who have lived on this mountain for a long time are aware of what kind of being I am," Eccentric Xu chuckled.

"The Cloud Race? Isn't that the race with the smallest population among the Heavenly Cloud Races, yet still ranks among the top three of the 13 races?" Han Li was quite surprised to hear this.

He had indeed heard of this Cloud Race, and he knew that it was one of the mysterious of the 13 Heavenly Cloud Races.

"Hehe, looks like you know quite a lot about our Cloud Race, Brother Han. Our Cloud Race and the Crystal Race are the two races with the smallest populations among the 13 races. However, in contrast with the Crystal Race, us Cloud beings are all quite powerful, which is why we were able to stake a claim among the top three races," Eccentric Xu said in a rather proud manner.

"My apologies for my ignorance; this is my first time meeting a being from your Cloud Race," Han Li sighed.

"There's no need to apologize. Our Cloud Race doesn't have a big population, but there are many of us here in Cloud City; it's just that very few of us appear as our true identities. Perhaps you've even met some being whom you thought were from other races, but were actually just Cloud beings in disguise," Eccentric Xu said in a meaningful voice.

Han Li was rather speechless upon hearing this.

Eccentric Xu then put away his smug expression as he adopted a slightly solemn look, and continued, "However, even though our Cloud Race is known for our proficiency in disguise and concealment techniques, the real reason why we were able to claim a spot among the top three of the 13 Heavenly Cloud Races is due to another natural ability of ours. I'm sure you've heard of it, right?"

"Are you referring to Bonded Cloud Beasts?" Han Li asked as he raised an eyebrow.

"Indeed. Bonded Cloud Beasts are creatures that lay somewhere in between the realms of spirit beasts and avatars. Only after cultivating our own Cloud Beast can beings like us truly become Cloud beings," Eccentric Xu said in a slow voice.

"I've heard some rumors about the Bonded Cloud Beasts of the Cloud Race. It's said that after cultivating a Cloud Beast, it would be the equivalent of an avatar with the exact same abilities as the Cloud being that had cultivated it. During times of peril, Cloud beings can even combine as one with their Cloud Beasts to form legendary Cloud Beast Giant Spirits. In doing so, not only would a Cloud being's powers be significantly enhanced, they'd even be able to unleash some powerful abilities that would've been beyond their capabilities otherwise. Could it be that you wanted to speak to me about something related to your Bonded Cloud Beast?" Han Li asked as he stroked his chin.

"You are truly a wise man, Fellow Daoist Han. I do indeed wish to speak with you about a Cloud Beast, but not my own. Instead, it's about my junior's Bonded Cloud Beast," Eccentric Xue explained as he pointed to the young boy behind him.

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"Oh? Would you be able to elaborate further on that, Fellow Daoist?" Han Li cast his gaze toward the young boy with a slightly surprised look in his eyes.

"Of course I can. Truth be told, I don't have many direct lineal descendants, and Xiang'er is the only junior of mine that is worth nurturing in my eyes. I don't mean to boast, but my junior's knack for cultivation is quite outstanding, even in the context of the entire Cloud Race. He should be able to become an upper race being in less than a century." From the benevolence in Eccentric Xu's eyes as he looked at the young boy, it was quite apparent that he held the boy in extremely high regard.

"You're far too kind, Great Grandfather; I only have ordinary aptitude that's nothing to boast about," the young boy hurried said in a shy manner.

"Haha, you've already reached this cultivation base below 20 years of age; your aptitude is even far superior to mine, so what's there to be modest about?" Eccentric Xu laughed heartily in response.

"Your junior does indeed possess astonishing talent," Han Li also chimed in with a smile.

The young boy could only remain silent with an embarrassed blush on his face.

Eccentric Xu's delighted expression then faded as he said in a heavy voice, "Generally speaking, this junior of mine could well rise to even greater heights than me in the future, but unfortunately, there's an inherent flaw in his body that makes his future cultivation full of doubts and uncertainty."

Han Li's eyes flashed upon hearing this, but he didn't say anything in reply as he knew that an explanation was definitely coming.

As expected, after a brief pause, Eccentric Xu continued, "He possesses outstanding aptitude, but some issues have arisen in his cultivation of his Bonded Cloud Beast. It should've been cultivated long ago, but he's stuck at the final steps and unable to truly manifest it. According to past experience, it's naturally best for one to cultivate their Bonded Cloud Beast as early as possible. Otherwise, his powers and future cultivation base progression could be hampered. This is why I've decided to come to you, Fellow Daoist Han."

"I'm not sure I understand how what the connection is," Han Li said in a perplexed manner.

"This is indeed rather complex. To put it simply, I unintentionally discovered that the world's origin Qi that I'd gathered from the phenomenon a few days ago can assist my junior in manifesting his Bonded Cloud Beast. However, I'd already used up most of the world's origin Qi I'd gathered last time, and the remaining amount isn't enough for him to use. As such, I can only come to you in the hopes that you could perhaps replicate that phenomenon." Eccentric Xu finally disclosed the purpose of his visit.

"If the world's origin Qi is useful to your junior, then I'm sure you can gather some yourself with ease; why do you need to come and find me?" Han Li asked in a calm manner.

"I've already conducted several experiments and found that normal world's origin Qi is completely ineffective in aiding my junior to manifest his Bonded Cloud Beast. As such, the world's origin Qi gathered by the phenomenon that you conjured up must be special somehow, and contains something that is beyond my scope of comprehension. Perhaps only that special thing will be able to help Xiang'er," Eccentric Xu replied in a rather gloomy manner.

"I see." A thoughtful expression appeared on Han Li's face.

He was naturally well aware that the so-called phenomenon that had taken place a few days ago was created by the dissipation of the true Kirin essence particle, so it was no surprise that this world's origin Qi gathered was different from normal. However, it really was quite a surprise to him that this special type of the world's origin Qi was beneficial to Cloud beings in manifesting their Bonded Cloud Beasts.

"I came here in the hopes that you can conjure put the same world's origin Qi as last time. If you can do that, I'll be sure to reward you handsomely for your efforts," Eccentric Xu said with a hopeful expression on his face.

"It's not that I don't want to help you, it's just that this is not something that I can accomplish easily," Han Li replied in a hesitant manner.

True Kirin essence was an extremely precious substance, and even though he couldn't refine it, it would still be immensely beneficial to the Weeping Soul Beast, so he was naturally unwilling to extract more particles for no good reason.

After all, even though there were many such particles in the Weeping Soul Beast's body, who was to say that a single particle wouldn't be the difference between the Weeping Soul Beast going through an evolution or not?

Han Li was definitely unwilling to help a foreign being that he'd only just met at the expense of his spirit beast.

Eccentric Xu's heart sank slightly upon hearing this, but he still insisted, "Are there some difficulties involved that you can't disclose, Fellow Daoist Han? This is an extremely important matter to me, so I'm willing to offer you as many spirit stones as it takes."

After a long pause, Han Li furrowed his brows as he explained, "This is not an issue that can be resolved with spirit stones. Truth be told, the phenomenon that I created last time wasn't a result of a secret technique or cultivation art that I used. Instead, I had to use a disposable treasure to conjure up that phenomenon. As for exactly what treasure that is, forgive me for not being able to disclose that. However, I'm sure you can imagine just how precious this treasure is to be able to conjure up such a phenomenon. I don't have many of those treasures left on my hands at the moment, and I'm very reluctant to part with them."

"A disposable treasure?" Eccentric Xu's expression changed upon hearing this.

"Indeed. On top of that, this treasure is extremely useful to me as well, and I'm not willing to exchange it for any quantity of spirit stones," Han Li continued in a rather apologetic manner.

"If it's a disposable treasure, then it would indeed make sense that you're not willing to exchange it for spirit stones. But then again, regardless of how precious a treasure is, it must have a price. I have a collection of precious treasures as well, and I can exchange a treasure of equal value for this disposable treasure you're referring to." Eccentric Xu had no intention of giving up.

"An exchange?" Han Li's expression changed slightly upon hearing this, and he really did seem to be tempted by this proposal.

At the sight of Han Li's reaction, Eccentric Xu knew that he had a chance, and he was elated as he immediately swept a sleeve over the table before him.

A burst of red light swept forth, and seven or eight jade boxes of different sizes abruptly appeared on the table.

"These items are the most precious treasures among my collection, and two of them are treasures that I almost gave my life to obtain. You can have a look at all of them, then if any of them catch your eye, feel free to take it. On top of that, I'll also be owing you a big favor for this," Eccentric Xu promised in a straightforward manner.

Han Li smiled upon hearing this, and he cast his gaze toward the jade boxes on the table as a series of thoughts quickly flashed through his mind.

This Eccentric Xu was at the pinnacle of the Spatial Tempering Stage, and he was also a Cloud being who appeared to be quite powerful. As such, the most precious treasures among his collection were most likely quite precious indeed.

However, he also possessed many astounding treasures, including two Profound Heavenly Treasures, which even Body Integration Stage beings wouldn't dare dream of obtaining. Hence, he wasn't actually very hopeful that there would be something here that could tempt him.

In any case, unless he saw something that he really needed, he wasn't going to agree to an exchange.

Even so, Han Li still smiled as he said, "In that case, I'd be honored to see these items among your collection."

He raised a hand and made a grabbing motion as he spoke, upon which a fiery red jade box left the table and was drawn into his grasp.

Han Li raised an eyebrow as he sensed the scorching aura emanating from the jade box, and he didn't dare to take it lightly as he conjured up a layer of spiritual light to protect his hand. At the same time, he flicked a finger from his other hand toward the jade box, and the lid flew off of its own accord.

A scorching aura immediately erupted from within in a frenzy, and the temperature within the entire hall was raised dramatically.

Blue light flashed through Han Li's eyes, and he immediately identified the item in the box to be a white egg that was around the size of a normal egg. However, there were red patterns all over its surface, and there was scintillating red light emanating from it that was swelling and receding incessantly.

"What's this?" Han Li asked as a hint of surprise flashed through his eyes.

He could sense that this egg possessed quite a powerful aura, but he naturally couldn't tell which type of beast this egg belonged to.

"You really do have a good eye, Fellow Daoist Han; you've picked out the only spirit egg among these treasures. This is the egg of an extremely rare Primordial Flame Butterfly that I killed in a realm of lava deep underground. The butterfly's fire-attribute powers were not inferior to mine, and I spent an entire year to set up a trap for it before I was finally able to kill it. I'm sure that if you were to carefully nurture this egg, it would hatch into a fantastic spirit beast. If it weren't for the fact that I already have a Bonded Cloud Beast, which makes it impossible for me to divert my attention to other spirit beasts, perhaps I would've hatched this egg long ago," Eccentric Xue said with a smile.

"For this butterfly to possess fire-attribute powers comparable to yours truly makes it quite an extraordinary creature. Unfortunately, I already have other spirit beasts as well. Otherwise, this would indeed be a highly sought after treasure to me." Han Li withdrew his gaze from the egg as he clicked his tongue with wonder.

Eccentric Xu faltered slightly upon hearing this before smiling as he said, "It's my fault for failing to consider that. At your current cultivation base, it's only natural that you've nurtured spirit beasts of your own already. It's alright, you can continue browsing through the other boxes."

Han Li nodded before placing the lid back onto the jade box, then gently tossing it forward.

A burst of azure light immediately surged out his sleeve, carrying the jade box onto the table in a stable manner before sweeping another jade box toward him.

Han Li raised a hand, and the second jade box fell into his grasp...

Time passed by slowly, and after about 15 minutes, Han Li had seen most of the treasures that Eccentric Xu had brought out.

Most of them contained rare materials, and there were also one or two powerful-looking treasures, as well as even a vial of pills that could assist in enhancing a Spatial Tempering Stage being's cultivation base.

These items were all extremely precious, and they were even superior to many of the auction items that had been sold during the Four Races Auction.

However, none of them managed to catch Han Li's eye, and he merely inspected them one by one with a faint smile on his face before putting them away.

After he'd appraised the item in the final jade box and set it down again, Eccentric Xu's expression was starting to become a little strained.

He couldn't help but ask, "Were none of these items of interest to you, Fellow Daoist?"

"In all honesty, these are all indeed extremely precious items. In particular, the egg of that Primordial Flame Butterfly would be a priceless treasure to fellow Daoists using fire-attribute cultivation methods. If you were to sell them in an auction, they'd definitely be able to fetch in excess of 10,000,000 spirit stones each. However, to me, they're..." Han Li shook his head in a resigned manner, and his voice trailed off mid-sentence.

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Even though Han Li didn't finish his sentence, Eccentric Xu naturally understood the unspoken implications, and his brows furrowed as he asked, "Why don't you tell me what kind of treasure you'd like in exchange for that disposable treasure of yours? Even if I don't have it, I have many acquaintances, and I could try and source it for you."

Han Li fell silent upon hearing this.

There naturally were items that he wanted. Not taking into account other matters, just the rare materials that Qing Yuanzi was asking for comprised of quite an extensive list.

However, it was exactly because of this that he found it difficult to state any terms.

If he were to use the true Kirin essence to exchange for only a few of the materials on the list, it naturally wouldn't be worth it for him. However, if he were to ask for too many materials in return, Eccentric Xu would most likely be of the opinion that Han Li was simply trying to take advantage of him, and he'd essentially be making an enemy for no good reason.

After all, only he was aware of the value of the true Kirin essence, but that was not something that he could disclose to Eccentric Xu, thereby resulting in this predicament.

"Fellow Daoist Xu, the items I require are all extremely rare, and even you wouldn't be able to source them, so there's no point in disclosing them. As for whether I can replicate that phenomenon for you..." Han Li heaved a faint sigh with a hesitant look on his face.

Eccentric Xu's expression darkened further at the sight of the hesitant expression on Han Li's face.

He glanced at the young boy behind him, then gritted his teeth and pulled out a blue jade box as he said, "Would you like to have a look at this item as well? It's even more valuable than all of the other items I've shown you. One of the elders of our Cloud Race also requires this item, and I wanted to offer it to him in exchange for some benefits, but the future of my junior clearly takes priority over that. I'm sure that even if this item isn't something that you're looking for, it's at least of equal value to the disposable treasure you possess."

Han Li wasn't surprised at all to see that Eccentric Xu had held something back in reserve. If he were in Eccentric Xu's shoes, he wouldn't bring out the most valuable item he had to offer from the get-go, either.

As for the story about how he was planning to give this item to one of the elders of his race, that most likely wasn't true, and Han Li naturally wasn't going to take it seriously.

Thus, he nodded in response before making a grabbing motion to draw the blue jade box into his grasp.

As soon as his fingers came into contact with the box, a strange chilling sensation suddenly ran through his entire body, and his heart jolted with shock in response.

He didn't know what kind of spirit jade this box had been refined from, but it was even colder than profound jade.

As such, Han Li was rather intrigued as he slowly removed the lid of the box, and golden light flashed as the content of the box was revealed.

This was a fist-sized chunk of crimson metal that was radiating shimmering golden light.

A hint of bewilderment flashed through Han Li's eyes as soon as he caught sight of the item, as if he'd managed to identify it, but he still seemed to be in disbelief.

All of a sudden, Han Li flipped a hand over, and a short white sword appeared in his grasp amid a flash of spiritual light.

The sword was only around half a foot in length, it was shimmering with a cold light, but it was quite clearly only a very ordinary treasure.

Han Li flicked his wrist, and the sword immediately shot forth into the jade box, striking the chunk of crimson metal in a flash.

An astonishing scene then ensued.

In the instant that the tip of the sword came into contact with the piece of crimson metal, it melted in a soundless manner like a burning candle, then disappeared into nothingness in the blink of an eye.

"Flame Metal Essence!" Han Li exclaimed through a slightly dry throat.

"You sure are quite knowledgeable, Fellow Daoist Han. This Flame Metal Essence is a top-grade material for refining fire-attribute treasures, and if you were to add even a tiny portion of it to a normal treasure, that treasure would be given fire-attribute powers. Regardless of how precious your disposable treasure is, I'm sure this item will be enough to exchange for it," Eccentric Xu said in a slow voice as he appraised the blue jade box in Han Li's hand.

The bewilderment gradually faded from Han Li's eyes, and he suddenly smiled as he said, "I really do have a use for this Flame Metal Essence, but I'm naturally also aware of just how precious it is. How about this? In addition to replicating that phenomenon for you, I'll also throw in 5,000,000 spirit stones for you."

Eccentric Xu had originally been quite dejected that he had to part with this precious treasure, but after hearing Han Li's proposal, his expression eased slightly, and he nodded as he replied, "Alright, we'll do as you say."

To him, the Flame Metal Essence was indeed extremely precious, but it still couldn't compare with the future of this junior on whom he'd placed such high hopes.

Thus, Han Li flipped a hand over to stow the blue jade box away, and Eccentric Xue began, "Now then, about the phenomenon..."

"Rest assured, Brother Xu; take this bag of spirit stones first, then go to the summit of this spirit mountain. I'll unleash the treasure right away to conjure up the phenomenon, and all you have to do is wait and harvest the world's origin Qi when it appears," Han Li explained with a smile before sweeping a hand over his storage bracelet, producing a leather pouch of spirit stones that he tossed over to Eccentric Xu.

Eccentric was clearly not expecting Han Li to fulfill his end of the transaction so quickly, and he faltered slightly as he reflexively caught the bag, then immediately rose to his feet in an elated manner. "Alright, I'll be waiting at the mountain summit then."

Thus, he hurriedly departed with the young body before flying up the mountain.

After the two had left his cave abode, Han Li was able unable to repress his excitement any longer as a faint smile appeared on his face.

"I didn't think I'd obtain the Flame Metal Essence so quickly. In addition to the Golden Marrow Crystal Insects and the Blood Apricot, I've gathered all of the main materials required to manifest my Provenance True Devil Projection. Now, all I need to do is gather some secondary materials, and I'll be able to manifest a substantial body for my projection," Han Li murmured to himself with a bright gleam in his eyes.

After that, the process was quite simple. Han Li released the Weeping Soul Beast again, then extracted another true Kirin essence particle from its body before intentionally refining it with his nascent flames.

Thus, the same explosion took place, and the particle burst through the ceiling of his cave abode before conjuring up the same astonishing phenomenon again, drawing all of the nearby world's origin Qi toward it.

Eccentric Xu was already well prepared, and he was ecstatic as he immediately grabbed the crimson gourd that was hanging from his waist before hurling it into the air, upon which the gourd transformed into a fiery wyrm.

Mere moments later, all of the world's origin Qi above the spirit mountain was absorbed by the fiery wyrm, and the entire process was even faster than it had been last time.

As such, not many cultivators living on the spirit mountain had been alerted by this phenomenon.

After that, Eccentric Xu transformed the fiery wyrm back into his crimson gourd, then took the young boy back to his cave abode in high spirits.

After witnessing all of this through a copper mirror in the hall of his cave abode, Han Li smiled as he ceased his secret technique, then immediately stowed the mirror away. After that, he gave Doll a few instructions using his spiritual sense before departing from his cave abode again.

On this occasion, Han Li visited several large material shops in Cloud City, spending a staggering amount of spirit stones to purchase over 30 types of different materials before finally returning to his cave abode.

Luckily for him, Cloud City was one of the few super cities on the territory of the 13 Heavenly Clod Races. Otherwise, he may not have been able to source some of the rarest materials he required if he were in another city. Half a month after Han Li had gone into seclusion in his cave abode again, a major event took place in Cloud City.

As a result, the city's defenses were tightened even further, and almost twice as many people were deployed to patrol the city compared to before. There were even some newly arrived outsiders in the city that were tracked down by some mysterious individuals, and extremely exhaustive investigations were conducted on these outsiders.

Some of the outsiders who were deemed to be overly suspicious mysteriously disappeared off the face of this world.

Within an extremely secretive hall in Cloud City, a dozen or so important figures were seated in two rows on a pair of wooden benches.

Among these people, there were some who were familiar to Han Li, such as the three elders of the Myriad Ancient Race, Cai Liuying of the Crystal Race, and Duan Tianren of the Stone Cocoon Race. The others were all beings whom Han Li had never met before, but the spiritual pressure emanating from their bodies indicated that they were beings of the same caliber as the likes of Qian Jizi. All of these vasty renowned holy race beings were gathered with solemn and cautious expressions on their face, while a man and a woman sat at the very center of the hall.

The man wore a set of white robes and appeared to be around 27 to 28 years of age, while the woman had a head of golden hair, but a face so deeply wrinkled that it appeared she was barely even able to keep her eyes open.

If Han Li were present at the scene, he wouldn't have paid much attention to the elderly woman, but he certainly would've been quite alarmed by the sight of the white-robed young man.

This was none other than the Grand Ascencion cultivator with the Weng surname, who had appeared during the last Four Races Auction.

At this moment, the young man wore a thunderous expression, and there was a menacing aura emanating from his body.

"It's been so many days, yet all of you still haven't managed to find the Jiao Chi Race infiltrator. It looks like the infiltrator has already fled Cloud City or is hiding somewhere that's beyond the scope of your search. Fellow Daoist Bai, Your Water Wraith Race has always been responsible for this area as of late; what do you think?" the white-robed young man suddenly asked in a cold voice.

The person that he had questioned was a man in a brocade robe with a head of white hair, but a set of youthful facial features. His expression soured slightly upon hearing this question, but he still hurriedly rose to his feet as he cupped his fist in a salute, and replied, "Senior Weng, we've already deployed all of the beings in our race who are proficient in interrogative techniques, and investigated all of the suspicious beings who have come to our Cloud City in the past six months. During the process, we've even weeded out hundreds of spies that had been planted in our Cloud City from various other races, but we've still been unable to find that Jiao Chi Race being who infiltrated our Enshrinement Hall. I think the infiltrator has most likely already left Cloud City. Otherwise, there's no way that he would've been able to escape such an exhaustive investigation."

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"That's not necessarily the case. Perhaps that infiltrator is very proficient in disguise techniques, and you may have unwittingly set them free already," a figure enshrouded in grey light remarked in an indifferent manner.

"Hmph, our Water Wraith Race may be lacking in combat prowess and power compared to other races, but our expertise in disguise techniques is definitely among the best in all of the 13 races. If you think your Yin Demon Race can do better, then I'll naturally be happy to hand over this duty to you, Brother Cang Ying," the white-haired being replied in an abrasive manner.

"I'm only saying this as a mere suggestion; there's no way that our Yin Demon Race would be more suited to this task than your Water Wraith Race," the grey figure chuckled in a nonchalant manner.

A cold light flashed through the white-haired man's eyes, and he was just about to say something else when the white-robed young man interjected, "Alright, that's enough bickering from you two. There's no way that Jiao Chi Race infiltrator could've managed to escape. After I discovered that that thing had been stolen, I immediately issued a command to seal off all of the exits of the city. During the past few days, no one has been allowed to leave, so not even a single mosquito could've flown out of Cloud City. On top of that, according to one of the guards who had been injured by the infiltrator, that being was only at the Spatial Tempering Stage, so it's very unlikely that they could've fooled Fellow Daoist Bai and his subordinates. In that case, this indicates that the infiltrator has most likely been in our Cloud City for a long time. As such, we have to investigate suspicious targets that have entered the city even longer than six months ago."

Both the white-haired man and the grey figure immediately fell silent in an obedient manner upon hearing this.

"If that really is the case, then things are going to get quite troublesome. If we begin investigating all suspicious beings who were allowed into the city from even further back than half a year ago, there are simply way too many beings to investigate. If all of the outsiders begin to panic upon realizing what we're doing, then that would spell even more trouble for us," Qian Jizi suddenly said after clearing his throat.

"That's indeed a possibility, and it's also what I'm most worried about. However, this infiltrator has stolen the blueprints of the restriction formation that we'd just set up in the entire Cloud City, so we can't let them escape without paying a price. Otherwise, if the army of the Jiao Chi Race were to reach our city, that restriction would be virtually useless against them," the white-robed young man replied.

"That's a very valid concern, Senior Weng. As long as the Jiao Chi Race infiltrator remains in the city, we naturally can't allow them to leave. However, if we were to really conduct an exhaustive investigation, we could perhaps keep it up for a month or two with no issues, but if that infiltrator decides to play the waiting game and hides somewhere in the city for years on end, we can't afford to keep this up forever," an elderly man with a long black beard said in a grim voice.

"Oh? Does that mean you have a good idea you'd like to propose, Fellow Daoist Ning?" the white-robed man asked.

"I don't have any valuable insights to offer, but we have Fairy Cai here, don't we? With Fairy Cai's intellect and talents, I'm sure she'll be able to find a solution with ease." The elderly man hurriedly waved his hands in response before suddenly thrusting Cai Liuying under the limelight.

Cai Liuying's eyes flashed upon hearing this, and she smiled as she said, "Sure you jest, Brother Ning. With Senior Weng and Mounta Master Sha here, there's no place for my little tricks. I can only do my best to fulfill the duty that I'm assigned."

"Fellow Daoist Cai, now's not the time for modesty. I want to hear what insights you have to offer as an elder of the Crystal Race," the white-robed man insisted in a serious manner.

Cai Liuying's brows furrowed slightly, but she then quickly reverted back to her normal expression as she rose to her feet, then extended a bow toward each of the two beings seated at the center of the hall. "In that case, I'll do my best to propose a solution."

"Alright, please go ahead, Fairy Cai."

"I'm sure you won't disappoint us, Fellow Daoist Cai."

Everyone present smiled and offered words of encouragement.

It appeared that even though Cai Liuying possessed one of the lowest cultivation bases among all of the beings present, she seemed to be quite a popular and influential figure.

Even the elderly woman that had her eyes virtually half-closed opened her eyes slightly wider as she appraised Cai Liuying.

The white-robed man beside her was also looking at Cai Liuying with an expectant gaze.

After looking at everyone gathered in the hall, Cai Liuying said, "In my opinion, it's not a good idea to pour all of our resources into conducting an exhaustive and lengthy investigation. Instead, we should lay a trap to lure out the infiltrator."

"What kind of trap do you propose?" the white-robed man asked.

Cai Liuying replied, "Regardless of what kind of method the infiltrator will adopt to try and escape, it looks like it'll be quite difficult to capture them in a short time. As such, I suggest conducting an exhaustive investigation for a month, doing everything we can within reason to search for the infiltrator. If we catch them during this time, then that would be ideal. However, if we fail to do so, we can slowly withdraw resources from the search, thereby making it appear as if we're giving up and conceded that we won't be catching the infiltrator, but in reality, we'll be deploying more people to the four city gates, where they'll be conducting investigations from the shadows. On top of that, I suggest organizing a group of elite individuals who continue to investigate suspicious beings leaving Cloud City during the upcoming period in secret. In that case, if the infiltrator is in a hurry to deliver the blueprints back to the Jiao Chi Race, they'll be sure to fall into our trap. On the contrary, if they plan to continue hiding in the city, I'm sure that once it becomes seemingly apparent that we're calling off the search, they'll gradually grow complacent, and that'll be their downfall."

"That is indeed a good idea, but what if that infiltrator is extremely proficient in disguise techniques, and they manage to bypass our investigation after we open the four city gates? Won't we be shooting ourselves in the foot and allowing them to escape instead?" The white-robed man initially nodded in response, but then shook his head quickly thereafter.

Everyone else thought that Cai Liuying's plan was quite good, but now that the white-robed man was stating a different opinion, everyone was rather hesitant again.

"Hehe, I've actually only disclosed half the plan, Senior Weng. I think you'll be interested to hear the second half of my plan," Cai Liuying said with a smile.

Her lips then began to move slightly, but she uttered no sounds, and it was quite apparent that she was transmitting her voice directly to the white-robed man.

The man was initially rather taken aback by this, but after listening for a while, a hint of surprise appeared on his face, which then quickly turned into elation.

Only after close to 10 minutes did Cai Liuying finally cease her voice transmission.

"Is that true?" The white-robed man took a deep breath before suddenly casting his gaze toward Qian Jizi.

"I wouldn't dare joke about such an important matter," Cai Liuying replied with a serious look on her face.

All of the other holy race beings present wore different expressions as they glanced at one another in the aftermath of that mysterious exchange between Cai Liuying and the white-robed man.

However, all of them were naturally smart enough not to inquire about the contents of the voice transmission.

"In that case, I'm certainly convinced. Mistress Sha, I'm sure you just heard Fellow Daoist Cai's voice transmission as well; what do you think?" The white-robed man suddenly turned to the elderly woman beside him in a polite manner.

"I have no objections. I'm just an old woman who doesn't want to think anymore. All I'm responsible for is helping out when we encounter enemies that are too powerful for these little guys to deal with. I'm not going to pay any heed to anything else, and nor do I have the energy to do so. Seeing as you've formulated a plan, I'm going back to rest now. Fellow Daoist Weng, you can make all of the decisions that arise from here onward," the old woman said in a feeble voice as she rose to her feet in a wobbly manner.

A wry smile appeared on the white-robed man's face upon hearing this. However, before he had a chance to say anything else, the woman had already departed, and she really did leave just as she said she would.

All of the other beings present were naturally slightly bemused to see this.

This elderly woman had always been extremely mysterious. All of them knew that she was a Grand Ascension Stage being, but no one knew which of the 13 races she hailed from, nor what kind of ability she'd cultivated to progress to the Grand Ascension Stage.

According to some rumors, she was the oldest of all of the current Grand Ascension Stage beings in the 13 races, and it was said that she'd lived for an unimaginably long time.

At the very least, all of the cultivators had known of her existence for many years.

As such, even though she appeared to be a frail old woman who could be blown over by a stiff breeze, even the white-robed man regarded her as a senior, so all of the other beings present naturally treated her with the utmost respect.

After the old woman finally hobbled out of the hall, the white-robed man could only heave a resigned sigh before withdrawing his gaze.

After a brief pause, the white-robed man announced in a decisive manner. "Seeing as Mistress Sha has already left and there's not really anything left to discuss this matter, we'll all do as Fellow Daoist Cai says. Fairy Cai, Fellow Daoist Bai, I'll leave this to the two of you. Everyone else, you must cooperate with the two of them to the best of your abilities."

Everyone in the hall naturally agreed to this arrangement.

"Alright, let's discuss the matters surrounding the Vast Glacial Realm next. Qian Jizi, you can tell everyone about this." The white-robed man suddenly changed the subject.

Everyone's expressions changed slightly upon hearing the words "Vast Glacial Realm".

Some of the more impatient beings present couldn't help but ask, "What's going on, Fellow Daoist Qian? Is the Vast Glacial Realm about to open soon?"

Meanwhile, Cail Liuying and Duan Tianren exchanged a glance in a reflexive manner before immediately averting their eyes.

"The Vast Glacial Apparatus in the Sentient Hall of our Myriad Ancient Race has displayed a reaction two days ago, and according to past experience, this means that the Vast Glacial Realm will open in a few months to three or four years," Qian Jizi explained in an unhurried manner.

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"It's opening that quickly?"

"This is not a good time!"

A stir immediately ran through the entire hall.

"The Vast Glacial Badges had only appeared not long ago, so it's indeed rather out of the ordinary that the Vast Glacial Apparatus is displaying a reaction so soon. This also coincides with the invasion of the Jiao Chi Race, so we won't be able to focus wholeheartedly on preparing for this event. However, the opening of the Vast Glacial Realm is a great opportunity for the races all over the Thunder Continent to receive a boost in power, so we naturally can't just not prepare for it, either. As such, I need everyone to formulate a course of action," Qian Jizi said with a serious look on his face.

"Indeed, Fellow Daoist Qian. The invasion of the Jiao Chi Race has drawn most of our attention, but thankfully, this isn't the first time we've had to prepare for the opening of the Vast Glacial Realm, so there's no need to panic even if it's happening a little earlier than normal," the white-robed man said with a nod.

"To be honest, whether we can reap much rewards from the Vast Glacial Realm depends almost entirely on the luck and potential of our juniors. All we can do is ascertain the roster that is to enter the Vast Glacial Realm as soon as possible, then set up the formation required for them to enter the realm. On this occasion, our 13 races didn't manage to secure too many Vast Glacial Badges, and our Cloud City only has two. As such, we only need to prepare two formations on our end. The other Vast Glacial Badges will naturally be taken care of by others, so we don't need to worry about them," a burly man with a body that was as black as charcoal chimed in in agreement.

"Indeed!"

"However, we have many juniors in Cloud City who are at the pinnacle of the Spatial Tempering Stage, so it won't be easy to ascertain this roster."

"In order to prevent that Jiao Chi Race infiltrator from wreaking havoc during this time, we have to make sure that the two teleportation formations are extremely well-guarded."

Some of the beings present were quite elated, while others were rather concerned, and all of them offered their opinions.

Meanwhile, the white-robed man merely listened to their discussion with a smile on their faces, and when the chatter finally died down, he turned to Cai Liuying, and asked, "Fairy Cai, do you have anything to add?"

Cai Liuying faltered slightly after being singled out, but she then immediately smiled as she replied, "All of the areas have been addressed in detail by all of my fellow Daoists, so there's nothing for me to add."

After a brief pause for contemplation, the white-robed man finally made his decision. "Alright, in that case, we'll prepare for the opening of the Vast Glacial Realm just like we've always done in the past. As for the specific roster of juniors to be sent into the realm, I'll leave that to all of you to decide. However, all of the beings chosen must be at least at the late-Spatial Tempering Stage, and we must deploy three times as many people as we have in the past to guard the teleportation formations. On top of that, the area in a radius of five kilometers around the two formations will be sealed off as a restricted area that's barred from entry to unrelated individuals. Only the Myriad Ancient Race knows how to set up the formations, so I'll leave that to you, Fellow Daoist Qian."

Qian Jizi and the two Myriad Ancient Race elders next to him naturally bowed and accepted these orders.

A thought then suddenly occurred to the white-robed man, and he asked, "By the way, have you chosen the candidates to activate the Vast Glacial Badges?"

"One of the candidates has already been chosen, but the other badge has already been activated," Qian Jizi replied after a brief hesitant pause.

"If I recall correctly, all of the candidates chosen to activate the Vast Glacial Badges are selected through a rigorous selection process, and the badges are only activated on the cusp of the opening of the Vast Glacial Realm; why was a badge activated so early this time?" The white-robed man's expression darkened upon hearing this.

"Please forgive me, Senior; the situation with this Vast Glacial Badge is rather special, and it had already been activated by the time we obtained it. Here's what happened..." Thus, Qian Jizi gave a careful recount of what had happened with Han Li.

"I see. So that being isn't a Heavenly Cloud being. In fact, he isn't even from our continent," the white-robed man surmised with a surprised look on his face.

"Indeed. I have also agreed to let him use the super teleportation formation after returning from the Vast Glacial Realm, but he has to supply the spirit stones required for that himself," Qian Jizi replied in a truthful manner.

The white-robed man's expression returned to normal before he continued, "That's not really an issue, but what's important is that you make sure there's nothing fishy about him."

"Rest assured, Senior Weng, we've made sure that there are no issues with this man. We're only using him so that others can be sent into the Vast Glacial Realm, and he's been under our surveillance this entire time, so he won't be able to do anything that's of detriment to us. After they enter the Vast Glacial Realm, they'll all split up, so there won't be any problems," Qian Jizi assured in a confident manner.

After contemplating this notion for a short while, the white-robed man also decided that this wasn't an issue, so he nodded, and said, "Seeing as you're so confident and the Vast Glacial Badge has already been activated by this person, then so be it. When the time comes, tell the others to conduct more surveillance on this man from the shadows."

Qian Jizi naturally accepted this arrangement as well.

After the three Myriad Ancient Race elders had taken their seats, a holy race being with dark green skin stood up, and reported, "Fellow Daoist Lu and the others have sent information back from the front lines; the Jiao Chi Race has increased the size of their army again, and there are even five or six more holy grade beings among them. This development has caught us off guard, and three of our cities have already been conquered, thereby placing us firmly on the back foot. It appears that the Jiao Chi Race fully intends to expand the scale of this war."

"Hmph, deploy five holy race beings and a thousand upper race beings from the city to the front lines right away. If they want to escalate this battle, then we'll be happy to respond in kind!" the white-robed man harrumphed coldly.

"Yes!"

After that, other holy race beings also began to report some important matters.

In the end, this meeting between the most powerful beings of Cloud City lasted for close to an hour.

Following its conclusion, all of the holy race beings immediately departed to make preparations.

Meanwhile, Han Li was still in seclusion, cultivating arduously in his cave abode.

On a certain day a year later, Han Li suddenly emerged from his cave abode and left Cloud City.

However, he mysteriously returned to the city just half a day later, then entered his secret chamber again.

Time slowly passed by, and three years flew past in the blink of an eye.

Within the secret chamber inside Han Li's cave abode, it was quite a dimly lit environment, and there were three humanoid figures seated on a futon each.

One of them was shimmering with golden light with a layer of golden scales over their skin. Another had black Qi surging all around their body, making it impossible to glean their true appearance. The final humanoid figure was glowing with purple light, but their skin was remarkably green.

All three of them were making different hand seals, seated in a completely stationary manner.

After an indeterminate period of time, the golden humanoid figure suddenly stirred before opening his eyes.

Two balls of piercing blue light immediately erupted from within his pupils.

"What's going on? Why has that person come to find me? Could it be..." the golden humanoid figure murmured to himself.

Immediately thereafter, he waved a sleeve through the air, and a ball of white light shot forth from within before hovering in the air above.

The entire secret chamber was immediately illuminated by bright white light, thereby revealing the three humanoid figures in a high level of clarity.

The golden humanoid figure sitting in the middle was none other than Han Li, and his brows were furrowed tightly, seemingly in deep thought.

The green-skinned being emanating purple light from its body was identical in appearance to Han Li, and he was appraising Han Li with curiosity in its remarkably clear eyes.

At this moment, a burst of Buddhist chants rang out from within the cloud of black Qi, which slowly dissipated to reveal a monstrous being with three heads and six arms.

The monstrous being was around 20 feet tall, and its body was also shimmering with golden light. Two of its faces had extremely clear facial features, while the final face was completely devoid of all features, striking the beholder with quite a harrowing sensation.

At this moment, the golden giant suddenly opened the eyes on its two clear faces, and its pupils were like a pair of black holes that threatened to suck in the beholder's soul.

"A guest has arrived; you two can keep cultivating on your own while I go out to meet our guest," Han Li instructed before flying toward a wall as a streak of golden light.

The streak of light disappeared into the wall in a flash, and moments later, azure light flashed from the stone door of the cave abode, which then slowly swung open as Han Li made his way out in a calm and collected manner.

"Han Li pays his respects to Senior Cai. May I ask why you've decided to pay a visit to my humble abode?" Han Li greeted with a respectful bow.

The guest standing outside was a slender and elegant woman; it was none other than Cai Liuying of the Crystal Race.

"Am I not welcome here, Fellow Daoist Han?" Cai Liuying asked with a smile.

"Of course you are, Senior Cai. It is a great honor for me that you've decided to visit. May I ask who this fellow Daoist is?" Han Li chuckled before turning his attention to the woman standing behind Cai Liuying.

She appeared to also be a woman with a gorgeous figure, but she wore a white hood on her head, and her facial features had been obscured by a ball of crystalline light.

"This is a new disciple of mine," Cai Liuying explained in an extremely concise manner.

The woman also nodded in silence to affirm this. It would naturally be unwise for Han Li to ask any further questions, so he could only invite the two into his cave abode. Thus, not long after that, all three of them were seated in the hall of his cave abode. A humanoid puppet immediately arrived at Han Li's behest to offer some spirit fruits and a few cups of spirit tea.

Cai Liuying was quite intrigued as she took a sip of her cup of spirit tea, upon which a hint of surprise flashed through her eyes.

"What potent spiritual Qi! These tea leaves seem to have come from a tea tree that's over 1,000 years old. On top of that, the tea tree itself also seems to be of a rare breed. In that case, such spirit tea will be hard to find even in Cloud City," Cai Liuying praised after taking a few more sips.

"If you like this tea, I have some more of these tea leaves, and I can give them all to you, Senior," Han Li said with a smile before sweeping a sleeve over the table, upon which a white box appeared out of thin air.

"In that case, don't mind if I do, Fellow Daoist Han; I really am quite a fan of this tea," Cai Liuying chuckled.

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She raised a hand as she spoke, drawing the jade box into her grasp before it then vanished in a flash.

Han Li smiled upon seeing this and began to discuss some matters revolving around cultivation with Cai Liuying, seemingly completely disinterested in finding out the purpose for her visit.

Cai Liuying smiled upon seeing this and also discussed some inconsequential topics with Han Li.

Thus, two full hours passed by, yet the two of them were still engaged in a spirited conversation, looking as if they could chat for another two hours.

However, the woman wearing the white hood was starting to become quite impatient. She was casting her gaze between Han Li and Cai Liuying incessantly and growing rather fidgety.

Cai Liuying's brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this, but a smile then quickly reappeared on her face as she said, "Fellow Daoist Han, it's only been a few years since I last saw you, but you've become a lot more patient since then. Even after this long, you still haven't asked me about the purpose of my visit; could it be that you cultivated some kind of special secret technique or experienced a spike in your cultivation base recently?"

"Surely you jest, Senior; I have no patience to speak of. It's just that I naturally wouldn't dare to ask the purpose of your visit before you decide to tell me," Han Li replied in a respectful manner.

"Looks like I was mistaken then. However, I trust you've already guessed the reason why I've come here today," Cai Liuying said with a nonchalant smile.

"Er... I do indeed have a hunch that your visit has something to do with the Vast Glacial Realm, Senior," Han Li replied in a truthful manner.

"Hehe, as expected, you've hit the nail right on the head, Fellow Daoist Han. This is indeed why I've paid you a visit with my disciple in accompaniment, and I'm sure that Fellow Daoist Duan will also come to visit you with someone else soon," Cai Liuying chuckled in response.

Han Li faltered slightly upon hearing this, and he cast his gaze toward the hooded woman with a hint of surprise in his eyes. "In that case, could it be that your disciple is..."

"That's right, this disciple of mine is one of the beings who possess an Essencefused Body that we were talking about last time," Cai Liuying confirmed.

"If I recall correctly, didn't you say that this person should be a guest member of your race? How has she suddenly become your disciple?" Han Li asked in a surprised manner.

"What's so strange about that? I told you earlier that this is a new disciple of mine," Cai Liuying replied with a smile.

"I see. Apologies for my foolishness," Han Li said with a wry smile.

"Do you think I only accepted this disciple due to the matter surrounding the Vast Glacial Realm?" Cail Liuying suddenly asked with a meaningful look in her eyes.

"I wouldn't dare to think that." Han Li's expression abruptly changed slightly upon hearing this.

"It's alright even if you do think that way. However, I can assure you that my disciple was fully willing to accept me as her master, and I didn't force her into this arrangement in any way," Cai Liuying said in a nonchalant manner.

"I was indeed wholeheartedly willing to become master's disciple." the hooded woman finally spoke for the first time.

Her voice was a little low and deep, but it was very captivating and pleasant to listen to.

A sheepish look appeared on Han Li's face upon hearing this, and he could only offer an awkward smile.

"The purpose of my visit is actually very simple; I only wanted you to get to know this disciple of mine. Once you enter the Vast Glacial Realm, the two of you have to work together," Cai Liuying said in a slow voice.

"Does that mean the Vast Glacial Realm is about to open soon, Senior?" Han Li asked.

"Indeed, Fellow Daoist. Barring any mishaps, the Vast Glacial Realm should be opening a month from now," Cai Liuying replied as her smile faded.

"A month? It's coming up that soon?" Han Li really was quite surprised to hear this.

"Are there some matters that you haven't finished attending to, Fellow Daoist Han?" Cai Liuying asked.

"No, it's just that if I had another few decades to work with, I could perhaps get my cultivation base up to the pinnacle of the seventh-tier. Perhaps then, I'd be able to use the abundant spiritual Qi within the Vast Glacial Realm to make a breakthrough," Han Li sighed in a resigned manner.

"That is indeed a wasted opportunity. However, at your current cultivation base, it won't be too difficult to break through the bottleneck. On top of that, Brother Xu and I have already promised you many benefits, so you should learn to be content with what you have, Fellow Daoist Han," Cai Liuying said in an indifferent voice.

Han Li's heart stirred upon hearing this, but he still forced himself to maintain a smile as he replied, "Rest assured, Senior; even if I wanted to refrain from entering the Vast Glacial Realm, Senior Qian Jizi definitely wouldn't allow it."

"It's good that you understand that, Fellow Daoist. Aside from introducing my disciple to you, I also have some other matters to discuss with you. The Vast Glacial Realm and those restricted ruins are extremely perilous, so you must prepare some treasures prior to embarking on your journey." Cai Liuying nodded before changing the subject.

Han Li was quite elated to hear this, and he said in an earnest manner, "Please enlighten me, Senior."

Cai Liuying nodded with a pleased expression upon seeing this before continuing, "I'm not going to tell you about the main aspects to look out for in the Vast Glacial Realm; someone will notify you of all that prior to your departure. Instead, I'm going to be telling you about some insights I gleaned from my past trip into the Vast Glacial Realm, as well as some hazards that may be easily overlooked. Firstly, after entering the Vast Glacial Realm, it's best to avoid the regions that are extremely hot or extremely cold. Those places have either been inhabited by powerful ice-attribute beasts or had extremely powerful restrictions set up. At your cultivation bases, entering those regions will almost definitely spell certain death. Secondly, if you encounter..."

Thus, Cai Liuying passed on her experiences with a serious look on her face, and both Han Li and her disciple listened with rapt focus.

After all, this advice could potentially save their lives, so they certainly didn't dare to ignore it.

"Lastly, remember if you see a strange crimson cloud in the distance, run away as fast as you can, and get as far away as possible from it. If you hesitate even for a split second, you'll be dead for sure. As for the specific reason behind that, I'm not going to elaborate on it; you'll find out why if you encounter such a phenomenon. Alright, I've said everything that needs to be said. Have you committed all of that to memory, Fellow Daoist Han?" Cai Liuying asked as she turned to Han Li.

"I have. Thank you for disclosing this valuable information, Senior," Han Li replied in a respectful manner.

"Alright, that's all I came here to do, so I'll be going back with my disciple now. The next time we meet will most likely be on the day when the Vast Glacial Realm opens," Cai Liuying said with a smile before rising to her feet. Her disciple also followed suit and stood up as well.

"I'll see you out, Senior." Han Li naturally also hurriedly rose to his feet to accompany the two of them out of his cave abode.

"There's no need for that; my disciple and I can leave on our own. Otherwise, suspicions may be raised if we were to be seen together," Cai Liuying replied.

"Alright, then forgive me for not being able to accompany you to the door," Han Li said with a slight bow.

Cai Liuying nodded before departing with her disciple. However, a thought then suddenly seemed to have occurred to her, and she turned around as she said, "How foolish of me; there's something that I almost forgot to tell you."

Han Li faltered slightly upon hearing this before immediately asking, "What is it, Senior?"

"Take this and make sure to keep it safe. A combination secret technique is recorded in here, and it's best for you to memorize it before you set off into the Vast Glacial Realm. After the three of you are teleported into the realm, don't be in a hurry to set off immediately. Instead, practice this secret technique that combines your Divine Essencefused Light into one first. This secret technique is not only necessary to break the restriction on that place, it's also a powerful weapon that can be used against enemies. I wanted to get the three of you to rehearse it prior to entering the Vast Glacial Realm, but there was a possibility that the secret technique could've been stolen by someone else in Cloud City, so you'll have to rehearse it after entering the Vast Glacial Realm." Cai Liuying raised a hand as she spoke, sending a streak of white light flying toward Han Li.

Han Li made a grabbing motion in a rather surprised manner to draw the white light into his grasp, then looked down to discover that this was a white jade tablet.

"A combination secret technique?" Han Li murmured to himself before seeping his spiritual sense into it in a curious manner. He had heard of this type of secret technique before.

Generally speaking, they were designed to combine the powers of many beings to create power superior to that of the sum of the participants, and they were very rare secret techniques.

After a while, Han Li withdrew his spiritual sense from the jade tablet, only to find that Cai Liuying and her disciple were already nowhere to be seen. Han Li wasn't surprised by this, and he swept a sleeve through the air in an expressionless manner. A burst of bright azure light immediately radiated from his body, and he abruptly vanished.

Moments later, golden light suddenly flashed within the secret chamber, and Han Li reappeared out of thin air before casting his gaze toward the monstrous being and the green Han Li, both of whom were still in seated meditation.

However, they seemed to have also sensed his arrival, and they both opened their eyes to meet his gaze.

"I wanted to cultivate the two of you further before entering the Vast Glacial Realm, but it looks like there's no time for that now. I have to prepare some things and refine the Extreme Essencefused Mountain for the Integrated Five Extremes Mountain first," Han Li murmured to himself before sweeping a sleeve toward the monstrous being in the secret chamber.

A swath of golden light swept forth, and an incredible scene ensued.

As the golden light descended upon the monstrous being, a burst of Buddhist chants suddenly rang out from within its body. Immediately thereafter, it disintegrated into countless golden runes of different sizes, as well as a cloud of black Qi.

The golden runes flashed and absorbed all of the golden light into Han Li's body, while the black Qi surged before forming a pitch-black Nascent Soul that was several inches tall.

This was none other than Han Li's second Nascent Soul, the Nascent Devil.

At this moment, the Nascent Devil wore a smile on its face, and had donned the suit of Heavenly Devilish Armor in a miniature form.

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Han Li smiled as he appraised the Nascent Devil before waving a hand toward it. Spiritual light instantly flashed from the Nascent Devil, and it disappeared into Han Li's body as a streak of black light.

It turned out that after using the precious materials gathered to manifest a substantial form for his golden projection, Han Li unintentionally discovered that his Nascent Devil could easily possess the golden body, and use the devilish Qi within it to continue cultivating its Profound Yin Devilish Qi.

At the same time, the second Nascent Soul could expel its nascent flames to refine this body, which was greatly beneficial to the manifestation of this golden body.

In that case, Han Li was naturally more than happy to let it possess the projection.

After all, his second Nascent Soul was virtually an independent being on its own, so he didn't have to expend any effort into guiding its cultivation or helping it control the golden body.

It was just a pity that this Nascent Devil possessed quite a lowly cultivation base. If it could cultivate to somewhere around Han Li's current cultivation base, then possess the golden body, it would essentially be similar to an avatar for Han Li, which would naturally immensely enhance his combat prowess.

For a normal being, it was of course extremely difficult to cultivate from the Nascent Soul Stage all the way up to the Spatial Tempering Stage.

However, Han Li had already been through all that, so he could pass on all types of cultivation experiences to his second Nascent Soul. Furthermore, he had a virtually limitless supply of precious pills to feed the second Nascent Soul, so its cultivation was definitely progressing even faster than he was.

Cultivation bottlenecks weren't exactly non-existent to Nascent Devils, but there was no doubt that it would be far easier for them to break through their bottlenecks than it was for normal cultivators. After all, the insights and enlightenment attained by a cultivator right before their breakthroughs were very useful resources. This was also why beings would begin to cultivate avatars or second souls after they'd reached a point in their cultivation where they felt that it was quite difficult to progress any further.

However, both refining avatars and second souls required the expenditure of vast amounts of effort and resources, and it was quite often the case that one would only achieve this objective after most of their remaining lifespan had been used up.

This was why most cultivators would only cultivate one or two avatars, despite knowing the immense benefits that avatars could bring to them, and also why most avatars possessed inferior cultivation bases compared to the cultivators themselves.

After all, they didn't have the mysterious small vial that Han Li possessed, which allowed him to infinitely nurture all of the spirit medicines he required at a vastly accelerated rate.

After embroiling itself in the devilish Qi within the golden body and taking many precious pills, the second Nascent Soul had already reached the pinnacle of the mid-Nascent Soul Stage, and a breakthrough to the late-Nascent Soul Stage appeared to be imminent.

However, seeing as the Vast Glacial Realm was about to open, he decided to put a hold on the cultivation of his Nascent Devil. He was going to get the second Nascent Soul to make its breakthrough in the Vast Glacial Realm.

The immense abundance of spiritual Qi in that realm would be far more effective against a mere Nascent Soul Stage bottleneck than any precious pills or medicines.

With that in mind, Han Li cast his gaze toward the other Han Li, and a peculiar light suddenly flashed through his eyes.

"Who would've thought that the body of the immortal zoysia is an ideal material for refining an avatar? On top of that, the liquid in the mysterious small vial can be directly absorbed by this immortal zoysia as pure spiritual power, thereby enhancing its magic power at a rapid rate. In just a few years, its magic power has reached the mid-Spatial Tempering Stage, and bottlenecks simply don't apply to it! That's absolutely incredible! But then again, that does kind of make sense. A spirit medicine that has attained intelligence and a humanoid form like this immortal zoysia had to have been in existence for countless years. During this process, it could only enhance its magic power slowly through constant accumulation. If it had to contend with bottlenecks as well, that would simply be far too unfair for it. The strange thing is, the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng has also attained sentience, but using the liquid on it will only replenish magic power without being able to enhance it any further. Could it be that only spirit beings like immortal zoysias can absorb this spirit liquid? Or could it be that a spirit medicine can only attain this ability after they've actually manifested an alternate form with its true body rather than just its soul?" Han Li murmured to himself with furrowed brows before shaking his head.

"Hehe, who cares what the reason behind this is? The fact of the matter is that a brilliant opportunity has been placed right before me. I can refine this avatar into a replacement body, then use my Nascent Soul to possess it and use it in battle."

After discovering that the spirit liquid in the mysterious small vial could enhance the immortal zoysia's cultivation base, Han Li's thought process was very simple; he was going to keep using the spirit liquid to nurture this spirit body to see if it could attain Body Integration Stage magic power in the end.

Even though this would only result in a spirit body that simply possessed Body Integration Stage magic power, but not actually an equivalent cultivation base, it would still be more powerful than his current body. If he were to then use his Nascent Soul to possess it, with all of the powerful abilities he'd mastered, he definitely wouldn't have to fear any Body Integration Stage beings.

Furthermore, there may not be an upper limit on the amount of magic power that this spirit body could attain. If he could nurture it to the point where it possessed Grand Ascension Stage magic power, he'd virtually not have to fear anyone in the Spirit Realm.

Of course, it was yet to be seen if that were actually possible.

For some reason, he had a feeling that something that defied the natural order to such an extreme extent simply wasn't feasible. Perhaps he could only nurture this spirit body so it possessed magic power equivalent to that of Body Integration Stage beings or beings at the pinnacle of the Spatial Tempering Stage.

After all, after nurturing his Golden Lightning Bamboo until it was 10,000 years old, the spirit liquid no longer proved to be effective on it.

With this precedent, Han Li naturally wasn't confident that the immortal zoysia would be able to absorb the spirit liquid without any upper limit.

Furthermore, once the pure spiritual power converted from the spirit liquid accumulated to a certain degree, the power would have to be refined using the dantian and the meridians, and this immortal zoysia clearly wasn't capable of accomplishing that on its own.

Thankfully, a flash of brilliance had occurred to him, and he'd thought of a way around this.

With that in mind, a smile appeared on Han Li's face as he instructed the green Han Li, "Thanks for your hard work during this period of time, Qu'er [1, you can come of out this body now. I won't be requiring you to continue refining the spiritual power within it for a while. During the next month, I'm going to stop the accelerated nurturing of all of the spirit medicines, and infuse all of the spirit liquid into this spirit body to be converted into spiritual power. After that, you can slowly refine this spiritual power."

"Yes, Master."

A tender voice rang out from within the immortal zoysia's body, following which it laid a hand onto the top of its own head. It then closed its eyes, and a ball of white light emerged from its body before transforming into a little girl who appeared to be around six to seven years old.

The little girl wore a snowy-white dress and had nine little black braids woven into her hair; she was extremely adorable!

As soon as the little girl appeared, Han Li smiled, and said, "You'll be entering the Vast Glacial Realm with me, and I'll be taking your true body with me as well. Go back and rest now so you can prepare for the upcoming journey."

"I can come as well, Master?" A pure and elated smile appeared on the little girl's face upon hearing this.

"I don't know what's going to happen during this trip into the Vast Glacial Realm, and your soul has already manifested a human form, so of course I can't just leave you here. If someone were to break into my cave abode in my absence, it would be a disaster," Han Li explained in a gentle manner.

"That's great! For some reason, after I've become like this, not only is my brain a lot smarter than before, I also really want to see the outside world," the little girl said in a joyful manner.

"Hehe, you've only just attained intelligence not long ago, so it's no surprise that you're curious about the outside world. However, you have to stay in the medicine garden during this period of time and make sure no one sees you. I'm expecting some visitors during the next month," Han Li cautioned in a serious manner.

The little girl was quite frightened by the prospect of visitors coming to the cave abode, and she immediately replied in a timid and fearful manner, "Alright, I'm going back to rest in the medicine garden right away."

After that, her body blurred, and she shot forth as a streak of white light, vanishing into the ground in a flash.

This little girl was naturally none other than the soul of the Ninecrurl Spirit Ginseng.

The immortal zoysia had told him that it was going to help the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng attain intelligence and also impart some knowledge, but much to Han Li's surprise, just one year after the immortal zoysia's soul had been released to enter the cycle of reincarnation, the soul of the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng had transformed from the white rabbit into this little girl.

It appeared that aside from just imparting some knowledge on the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng, the immortal zoysia had to have also given it some immense benefits prior to its passing.

Needless to say, Han Li was very glad to see this, and he gave Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng the name "Qu'er".

After that, he discovered that Qu'er was also able to enter the body left behind by the immortal zoysia and circulate the enormous magic power within it. This was perhaps due to the fact that she was also a spirit being of heaven and earth, just like the immortal zoysia had been.

In any case, during the spiritual power refinement process, Qu'er herself also benefited immensely from having her body immersed in such a vast amount of spiritual power.

As such, he assigned her the duty of refining the spiritual power inside the immortal zoysia's body.

This decision had proven to be quite a wise one during the past two years, and Han Li was very pleased that this arrangement had worked so splendidly.

After the little girl's departure, Han Li made a grabbing motion toward the immortal zoysia's body from afar, and a burst of grey light immediately swept forth to envelop the spirit body.

The body then quickly shrank to several inches in size amid flashes of purple light the grey light carried it toward Han Li, and in the end, the spirit body disappeared up his sleeve.

Having done all that, Han Li swept his gaze around his empty secret chamber before immediately turning around then striding out the door.

During the next month, Han Li frequently appeared in various large shops in Cloud City, purchasing some materials and rather uncommon treasures.

As expected, Duan Tianren and Qian Jizi also came to visit him during this time, and all of them departed with pleased expressions on their faces after conversing with Han Li for around half a day each.

A period of a month naturally wasn't very long, and it flew by in the blink of an eye.

On this day, Han Li was meditating in the hall of his cave abode when a streak of red light suddenly flew in from outside before revolving around him.

He raised an eyebrow before raising a hand to draw the red light into his grasp, then injecting his spiritual sense into it to inspect its contents.

"It's finally begun," Han Li murmured to himself before abruptly rising to his feet and making his way out of the cave abode.

[1] [The "Qu" in Qu'er is the same character as the "curl" part of the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng]

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There were a dozen or so foreign beings waiting outside his cave abode, and at the forefront of the ground were four yellow-robed beings, all of whom were at the pinnacle of the Spatial Tempering Stage. The rest of the group was comprised of armored warriors wielding long silver halberds, and all of them were wore serious expressions on their faces.

One of the yellow-robed men cupped his fist in a salute as soon as Han Li emerged from his cave abode, and said, "Fellow Daoist Han, we were given orders by Senior Qian Jizi to take you to the meeting place where everyone has gathered."

"I'll have to trouble you to lead the way, then," Han Li replied in a calm manner.

In the past, only very few of the most important beings in Cloud City were aware of the fact that he was the one who had activated the Vast Glacial Badge. However, now that the opening of the Vast Glacial Realm was imminent, many more people had most likely been made aware of this information.

Qian Jizi was naturally afraid that someone would try to kidnap or kill Han Li for their own objectives, which was why he'd deployed this group to accompany him to the meeting place.

The yellow-robed man smiled upon hearing this before waving a hand toward the armored warriors behind him. The dozen or so armored warriors immediately parted to reveal a spirit carriage that was shimmering with azure light. The carriage was being drawn by a pair of gorgeous massive azure birds, and it was quite clear that this was no ordinary spirit carriage. Han Li strode forward and entered the carriage without a fuss, and the four yellow-robed beings also rose up into the air before descending onto the carriage.

The four of them had clearly rehearsed this before, and they each landed on one corner of the spirit carriage to shield Han Li between them at the very center.

The two azure birds let loose a few clear cries before spreading their wings, and they rose up into the air with the spirit carriage behind them. Meanwhile, each of the armored warriors summoned a silver disk, and they also rose up into the air atop these treasures. Moments later, the azure spirit carriage had reached an altitude of several thousand feet, and it was flying straight out of Cloud City.

It was quite clear that the entire Cloud City was on high alert. Not only were there extremely few pedestrians on the streets, there were also many groups of armored warriors patrolling the city on the ground below, as well as in the air above.

What Han Li also noticed was he could sense restriction fluctuations coming from some of the more important places in the city, as if all of the spell formations there had been activated.

It appeared that the higher-ups of Cloud City really did regard the opening of this Vast Glacial Realm as an extremely important event.

The spirit carriage flew along without encountering any mishaps, taking Han Li directly to the inn where he'd first activated the Vast Glacial Badge.

At present, this area had been completely sealed off by layers upon layers of restrictions, and even from afar, several tens of giant pillars could be visible in these restrictions. These pillars were around 1,000 feet tall each, and they encircled the entire area in a radius of close to 10 kilometers around the inn.

These pillars were all emanating spiritual lights of different colors, and they formed a five-colored light barrier that made it impossible for anyone on the outside to see what lay inside.

As soon as the carriage approached the area, Han Li could clearly tell that there were at least 10 times as many guards here than compared to other places. Almost the entire area had been surrounded by armored warriors, and there were also over 100 puppets present.

These puppets were around 70 to 80 feet tall each, and some of them were as inky-black while others were fiery red, and they'd also been deployed to various locations in the area.

A hint of surprise flashed through Han Li's eyes upon seeing this.

All of the guards here were at least of the Core Formation Stage, and the majority of them were at the Nascent Soul Stage.

As for Spatial Tempering Stage aura, even after just a quick inspection using his spiritual sense, Han Li had already discovered two or three in the nearby area, and this wasn't even taking into account the layers of restrictions that had been set up all around.

To say that the defenses here were tight would be quite an understatement!

The azure spirit carriage didn't appear to have any special features on it, but none of the guards stopped it along the way.

Now that they were close to the light barrier, a few armored warriors riding atop steeds that appeared to be giant winged wolves flew out of the light barrier, heading directly toward Han Li's carriage.

"General Tie, is Fellow Daoist Han here?" An azure-armored man who appeared to be around 50 years of age asked from afar as he sat on his giant wolf steed.

"Hehe, Senior Qian must've asked you to come and greet us, right, Brother Hua? Rest assured, Fellow Daoist Han is sitting in the carriage, so you can open the restriction for us now," one of the yellow-robed men standing on the spirit carriage replied with a smile.

"That's good to hear; I'll open the restriction right away." The azure-armored man nodded upon hearing this, following which he and a few other armored beings each summoned a restriction badge, then waved them in unison toward the light barrier that they'd just emerged from.

Pillars of light of different colors immediately shot forth from their badges before striking the light barrier and forming a light formation that was around 10 feet in size.

The light barrier immediately swayed before a faint buzzing sound rang out, and an opening appeared on it before expanding to form a passageway.

There was five-colored light swirling within the passageway, giving it quite a mysterious appearance, and the yellow-robed man who had spoken earlier immediately spurred on the giant azure birds, instructing them to lead the spirit carriage into the passageway.

The silver-armored warriors behind them and the wolf-riders also hurried and followed suit.

What appeared to be an ordinary passageway took the spirit carriage quite a long time to fly through, and Han Li rather surprised by how long it took to reach the other side.

This indicated that there was a spatial restriction enclosed within the light barrier, and if an oblivious being were to try and sneak into the light barrier, they'd be temporarily trapped in there regardless of how profound their movement techniques were.

As a result, there was no way that they'd be able to avoid being discovered during their infiltration attempt.

Just as these thoughts were flashing through his mind, the azure spirit carriage emerged on the other side of the light barrier, and Han Li was greeted by the sight two massive formations down below, each of which had a radius of several hundred feet.

There were countless fist-sized crystals embedded all over the surfaces of these formations, and a series of complex and profound patterns had been carved around the formations.

All of these crystals and patterns were emanating faint spiritual light of different colors, creating quite an exuberant sight to behold from afar.

Between the two formations, there was nothing else aside from a newly-constructed hall that took up an area of several acres.

There were humanoid figures all around the formations, as well as the massive hall, and there appeared to be thousands of beings present.

Most of them were armored warriors who were on guard duty while the remaining several hundreds of them all wore different attire. However, there was one constant, which was that all of them possessed advanced cultivation bases.

Even though these people had surrounded the two formations and the hall, there was not even a single person who was speaking.

However, as the azure spirit carriage that Han Li was in began to descend from above, many people down below still raised their heads to look up.

The four yellow-robed men paid no heed to the widespread attention they were receiving, and they merely continued to drive the carriage, taking to a smooth landing on a plot of empty land that appeared to have been prepared specifically for this purpose.

Han Li cast his gaze around him, and only then did he discover that there was another completely identical spirit carriage parked beside him, except that one was completely white in color.

After the carriage had drawn to a stop, one of the yellow-robed men turned to Han Li as he cupped his fist in a polite salute, and said, "Fellow Daoist Han, Senior Qian Jizi and all of the other seniors are waiting for you in the hall. We still have other matters to attend to, so we'll have to part ways with you here."

"Thank you for transporting me here, Brother Tie." Han Li also returned his salute with a smile.

After that, his body swayed, and he slowly drifted down from the carriage, then made his way toward the hall in an unhurried manner after landing on the ground.

The dozen or so armored warriors had witnessed Han Li disembarking from the spirit carriage, so they only appraised him with curiosity in their eyes, and refrained from stopping him to ask questions or conduct a search.

Han Li was naturally quite glad to be spared the trouble, and entered the hall without a hitch.

After passing through a corridor that was lined with armored warriors on both sides, he arrived in a spacious hall, within which were around 40 to 50 people, some of whom were standing while others were seated.

At the center of the hall was a chair, upon which sat a white-robed man who appeared to be in his twenties. It was none other than the man with the Weng surname.

Qian Jizi, Duan Tianren, Cai Liuying, and seven or eight other holy race beings were also seated in various parts of the hall.

Behind them were groups of beings from various different races, all of whom were at the pinnacle of the Spatial Tempering Stage.

As Han Li was walking into the hall, Qian Jizi was in the process of saying something to the white-robed man with a smile on his face, while everyone else was listening in silence.

However, everyone's attention was then immediately drawn to Han Li following his arrival.

Han Li's heart jolted slightly at the sight of the white-robed man, but his expression remained calm as he extended a deep bow, and said, "I pay my respects to all of the seniors present."

"I'm glad to see you're here as well, Fellow Daoist Han. The Vast Glacial Realm will be opening in a few hours, and I'll introduce you to your companions later," Qian Jizi said with a smile.

"Yes, Senior." Han Li naturally wasn't going to state any objections here.

The white-robed man glanced at Han Li, and he seemed to have noticed something as a hint of surprise had flashed through his eyes. He suddenly asked, "So you're the one who unintentionally activated the Vast Glacial Badge?"

"Indeed, Senior Weng," Han Li hurriedly replied with a respectful bow.

"You recognize me?" The white-robed man was rather taken aback.

"I had the honor of seeing you from afar during the Four Races Auction, Senior," Han Li replied in a truthful manner.

The white-robed man appraised Han Li carefully for a moment before saying something that was quite unexpected to everyone. "The Four Races Auction, eh? In that case, it seems we have some affinity with one another. I can see you're only a seventh-tier upper race being, but your magic power and spiritual sense are both several times more powerful than beings of the same cultivation base. I have a treasure that I unintentionally came across many years ago known as the Heavenly Astral Seal. Using it is quite taxing on one's magic power and spiritual sense, but it's very useful for beings below the holy race, so I think it'll be perfect for you."

As soon as his voice trailed off, he swept sleeve through the air, and a shimmering silver object was immediately sent flying toward Han Li.

Han Li initially faltered upon seeing this before a hint of elation welled up in his heart. He hurriedly expressed his gratitude before making a grabbing motion toward the oncoming object.

A burst of azure light swept forth from his fingertips, enveloping the item before drawing it into his grasp.

He then focused his gaze to discover that this was a small antiquated silver seal that was around five to six inches in size.

At the very bottom of the seal was inscribed a few pea-sized purple characters that read "Heavenly Astral Seal" in a type of ancient text.

This was an extremely rare text from ancient times, but thankfully, it was one that Han Li recognized from his extensive studies.

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Even though Han Li was quite surprised that a Grand Ascension Stage being was giving him a present on their first official meeting, he naturally wasn't going to refuse it. At the same time, he was considering what reason the white-robed man could have for doing this.

Everyone was also quite surprised to see this, and many of them began to exchange glances with one another.

Just as everyone thought the white-robed man was going to say something else to Han Li, much to everyone's surprise he simply leaned back and fell silent.

Qian Jizi faltered slightly upon seeing this before quickly returning to his senses as he turned to Han Li with a smile.

"You're vastly fortunate to be receiving a treasure from Senior Weng, Fellow Daoist Han. With that treasure to protect you, you'll undoubtedly be a lot safer in the Vast Glacial Realm. We don't have much time left, so let me introduce you to your companions first."

"Thank you, Senior Qian," Han Li replied in a respectful manner.

"First, let me introduce Fairy Yue to you. Just like you, she's also activated a Vast Glacial Badge, and she'll be taking another team into the Vast Glacial Realm. There's a very slim chance that your two teams will be teleported into the same area in the Vast Glacial Realm, but if you happen to bump into one another, make sure to look out for each other," Qian Jizi began as he gestured toward a woman with a remarkably pale face, wearing a blue palatial dress.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Fairy Yue." Han Li took a quite glance at this woman, yet found himself unable to identify what race she hailed from. In any case, he still smiled and cupped his fist in a polite salute.

The woman merely nodded in an indifferent manner without saying anything in response.

"This is Shi Kun of the Stone Cocoon Race. He possesses some of the most powerful defensive abilities among all of you. Those two are the twins from the Azure Race, Feng Xiao and Yun Teng; they're very adept at fighting enemies together..." Qian Jizi introduced all of the beings in the hall who were at the Spatial Tempering Stage to Han Li one by one, only giving brief introductions without going into any great depth. As such, all of the introductions were completed quite quickly.

In the face of a seventh-tier upper race being like Han Li, most of them either displayed no reaction or appraised him with cold expressions. Only a few people regarded him with smiles on their faces.

This was no surprise to Han Li. After all, these were all ninth-tier upper race beings, and if they were to make one more breakthrough, they'd be able to reach the holy race. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been chosen to enter the Vast Glacial Realm. As such, it only made sense that they wouldn't pay much heed to an outsider who was only a seventh-tier upper race being.

He had been praised by the white-robed man in person earlier, but that only indicated that he was using some special cultivation arts. At the very least, that was what many of them were thinking.

Qian Jizi's brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this.

Everyone else as oblivious to this, but he knew that Han Li had once slain several beings of the same cultivation base as himself with ease. Perhaps he couldn't completely dominate all of these beings present, but he was definitely powerful enough to at least be among the top three.

However, Han Li didn't seem to mind the treatment that he was receiving, and he nodded to acknowledge these beings one by one as they were being introduced.

Cai Liuying and Duan Tianren's disciples were both among these beings, and that Shi Kun from the Stone Cocoon Race was none other than Duan Tianren's disciple. According to Qian Jizi, the hooded woman who was Cai Liuying's disciple was called Liu Shui'er.

"In the past, each Vast Glacial Badge could only take 13 beings into the Vast Glacial Realm, but after making some improvements to the teleportation formations with the assistance of some formation masters from the Crystal Race, each badge can now facilitate the teleportation of 15 people. Hence, all 30 of you will be entering the Vast Glacial Realm. That's all the introductions I have to make; let me split you into your teams now. The names I call out from here will go with Fairy Yue, while the rest will go with Fellow Daoist Han. Hei Sha, Feng Xiao..." Thus, Qian Jizi began to rattle off a list of names.

Not long after that, everyone had been split up into two groups, one of which stood behind Han Li, while the other stood behind the woman in the blue dress.

Han Li's expression remained calm and unchanged, but internally, he was wondering what kind of strings Cai Liuying and Duan Tianren had pulled behind the scenes to get Qian Jizi to assign Liu Shui'er and Shi Kun to his team.

Both of them wore calm expressions, as if they'd never seen Han Li before this.

As such, it appeared that he had no choice but to take a trip to those ruins in the Vast Glacial Realm.

After the two teams had been assigned, an unfamiliar holy race being rose to his feet before disclosing to Han Li and the others matters that they had to be careful of in the Vast Glacial Realm.

Even though Han Li and the others had already heard this information more than once from other sources, they still listened with rapt focus, just in case there was something that they'd missed in the past.

After finishing his address, the holy race being stepped aside again, and Qian Jizi waved a sleeve through the air, sending a burst of white light sweeping out from within. 50 to 60 treasures of different sizes then appeared in mid-air in a flash.

These treasures came in all shapes and forms, including things like rings, bowls, flags, canes...

However, the most common types of treasures, such as flying swords and flying sabers, were nowhere to be seen.

Everyone looked on at the diverse array of treasures up ahead with bewilderment in their eyes.

Some of them turned to Qian Jizi and opened their mouths as if they were about to ask some questions, but right at this moment, Qian Jizi smiled, and said, "What are you all waiting for? These treasures were all chosen for you from the secret vault of our city to help ensure a smooth trip. All of them can be used without being refined, but each of you can only choose one."

Everyone faltered slightly upon hearing this before expressions of elation appeared on their faces.

Many of them immediately made hand seals or simply made grabbing motions to draw their desired treasure toward them.

The few treasures with the most powerful auras were taken almost right away. Thus, spiritual lights of different colors flashed as treasures flew left and right through the air. It was a free-for-all contest to see who could secure the best treasure.

In the blink of an eye, close to half of the treasures had been taken, but there were still a few people who were yet to make their choices, and were still considering their options.

Treasures with prominent auras were most definitely quite powerful, but that didn't mean that the treasures with weaker auras were necessarily inferior. At times, picking a treasure that had great synergy with one's cultivation arts was a far superior option to simply trying to choose the most powerful treasure.

Han Li was also one of the beings who hadn't chosen a treasure yet.

However, he didn't wait for too long, either. Blue light quickly flashed through his eyes, and he abruptly made a grabbing motion.

Azure light flashed from one of the treasures hovering in mid-air, following which a large azure hand appeared, grabbing onto the treasure before drawing it back toward Han Li.

Spiritual light then flashed from his hand as a jade fan that was shimmering with blue light appeared in his grasp. The image of a scenic mountain peak had been inscribed on the surface of the fan, and a burst of glacial power was emanating from it.

This was an ice-attribute treasure.

Han Li nodded with a pleased smile, but he then suddenly seemed to have sensed something, and he raised his head in a calm manner, just in time to see the woman in the blue palatial dress also casting her gaze toward him, focusing her attention on the blue jade fan in his hand.

However, after noticing that Han Li had was also appraising her from afar, she withdrew her gaze again.

She was also one of the people who hadn't chosen a treasure yet, and a contemplative look appeared in Han Li's eyes upon seeing this.

In the end, the woman chose a white ruler treasure that also seemed to be imbued with glacial power.

After the final person had chosen their desired treasure, Qian Jizi swept a sleeve through the air, and white light flashed as all of the remaining treasures disappeared into his sleeve as streaks of spiritual light.

After consulting with the white-robed man, Qian Jizi announced, "There's not much time left, so go and prepare yourselves for the upcoming journey."

Thus, everyone began to depart from the hall. After arriving on the plaza outside the hall, Han Li took a casual glance up into the sky to find that it seemed to be around noon, given how dazzling the sun was.

He then cast his gaze toward the two massive formations nearby to find that there were already over 100 armored warriors standing around them, each of which were holding formation plates and formation flags.

The spirit stones that were embedded into the formations were also shimmering with faint spiritual light, and it seemed that everything had been prepared.

However, Han Li's eyes suddenly narrowed as he turned his attention to the air above the formations.

There was a head-sized ball of light hovering in mid-air there, and its surface was flashing incessantly with five-colored light.

There seemed to be something inside that ball of light as well, and it didn't take Han Li long to sense that it was none other than the Vast Glacial Badge that he'd unintentionally activated.

However, the badge seemed to have been temporarily restricted by the five-colored ball of light, thereby completely immobilizing it.

At this moment, Qian Jizi and the others also emerged from the hall, and they all stopped outside before also looking up at the bright sun in the sky.

"We can't afford any errors in timing; bring out the Vast Glacial Apparatus," Qian Jizi ordered

"Yes!"

Several armored warriors immediately flew into the hall as streaks of silver light.

Moments later, they re-emerged from the hall, carrying a gargantuan object in an extremely strenuous manner.

The object was over 100 feet tall, and appeared to be a massive azure bell. However, there were a dozen so dragon head statues on its surface, all of which had their eyes closed, thereby giving the bell quite a mystical appearance.

Following a resounding thud, the Vast Glacial Apparatus was set down heavily at the center of the plaza, causing the entire ground to tremor slightly in the process.

Qian Jizi immediately made a hand seal before raising his hand, and a white incantation seal flew forth before vanishing into the Vast Glacial Apparatus in a flash.

Scintillating light immediately began to radiate from the surface of the massive azure bell, and at the same time, countless azure runes appeared out of thin air. The dozen or so extremely life-like dragon statues then began to move as if they'd sprung to life, but then quickly fell still again.

Only the mysterious runes on the surface of the giant bell continued to flash incessantly.

Everyone, including Han Li, had turned their attention to this object, but they were naturally unable to identify what it was being used for.

At this moment, Qian Jizi and the other holy grade beings suddenly began to converse with one another, and they paid no further heed to the Vast Glacial Apparatus. Not long after that, the white-robed man emerged from within the hall.

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All of the other cultivators who were going to enter the Vast Glacial Realm were either inspecting the giant formations or appraising the Vast Glacial Apparatus with solemn expressions on their faces.

The Vast Glacial Realm was a land of opportunities, especially to those who were at cultivation bottlenecks, but it was also fraught with peril, and many beings had perished in there.

Those people all possessed similar levels of aptitude and power to themselves, so everyone was naturally rather uneasy and apprehensive.

Han Li stood silently in a corner, and he wasn't looking at the formations, nor at the Vast Glacial Apparatus. Instead, he continued to look up at the bright sun in the sky through narrowed eyes in a completely motionless manner.

Time slowly passed by, and after a long while, a dragon roar suddenly erupted into the heavens from the plaza.

Han Li's expression changed slightly, and he hurriedly cast his gaze toward the plaza.

There, he discovered that the dozen or so dragon head statues had all opened their eyes, which were shimmering with golden light, and they were roaring up into the sky with their heads raised high.

Everyone below the five-colored light barrier instantly fell silent upon seeing this.

All of a sudden, a cold voice rang out from within the hall. "The Vast Glacial Realm has opened; activate the formation and open the passageway."

The voice belonged to none other than the white-robed man with the Weng surname, and everyone on the plaza stirred upon hearing these instructions.

All of the beings who were standing in the formations already immediately activated their formation flags and formation plates in unison.

Countless incantation seals of different colors flew forth from their formation treasures, all of which disappeared into the formations.

The two massive formations began to emit a loud buzzing sound as a result, and the spirit stones embedded into their surfaces began to flash erratically with spiritual lights of different colors. At the same time, an extremely astonishing aura began to proliferate in all directions, and a vast expanse of dark clouds abruptly gathered in the air beneath the five-colored light barrier, as if they'd been drawn to this place by the power of the formations.

The dark clouds completely obscured the entire sky, following which fierce winds were swept up in the area.

Arcs of silver lightning began to appear within the clouds, flashing like bright silver snakes amid rumbling thunderclaps. Black vortexes of different sizes then also began to take shape before devouring and tearing at one another.

A series of astonishing phenomena were conjured up, and the five-colored balls of light were quickly shattered to reveal the shimmering golden and silver badges within.

"Fellow Daoist Han, Fairy Yue, you two may enter the formations with your respective teams and activate the Vast Glacial Badges," Qian Jizi yelled without any hesitation upon seeing this.

Han Li and the woman in the blue dress naturally immediately did as they were told, striding toward the formation that their respective Vast Glacial Badges were situated in.

All of their team members also followed suit, while the beings inside the formations who were holding various types of formation treasures backed out of the formations instead.

Even so, the formation treasures in their hands were still blasting incantation seals into the formations in a frenzy without displaying any signs of stopping.

As soon as Han Li made his way into the formation, his heart jolted, and he could sense that his connection with the Vast Glacial Badge had been strengthened by severalfold.

The shimmering Vast Glacial Badge also began to emit a low buzzing sound, as if it were expressing its elation toward Han Li's arrival.

Qian Jizi had naturally already told him how to activate the badge in advance.

As such, Han Li strode toward the center of the formation, then flicked his 10 fingers through the air in rapid succession, sending one incantation seal after another disappearing into the Vast Glacial Badge that was hovering in mid-air.

Immediately thereafter, countless golden and silver runes emerged from the Vast Glacial Badge, and these runes revolved around the badge before forming a light formation that had a diameter of around 10 feet.

The Vast Glacial Badge was situated at the very center of the formation, and Han Li took a deep breath before pointing a finger up at the badge in a solemn manner.

An azure pillar of light immediately shot forth from his fingertip to strike the badge, causing it to emit a loud cry while the entire light formation began to tremor.

Brilliant golden and silver light radiated in all directions, and the light formation slowly revolved before also blasting forth a pillar of golden and silver light that was around as thick as a water tank.

The pillar of light rose up into the sky, disappearing into a certain black vortex up above in a flash, but it showed no signs of stopping there.

A loud rumbling noise rang out in the air above, and the vortex that the pillar of light had vanished into suddenly began to tumble and churn violently, as if it were being stirred up by some kind of immense force. All of the other vortexes around it were instantly swept up and torn apart while the main vortex swelled drastically in size.

After just the span of a few breaths, all of the vortexes in the sky had disappeared aside from two massive ones that were around 500 meters in diameter each, both of which were emanating dense black Qi.

At this moment, the badges at the centers of the light formations suddenly vanished amid a flash of golden and silver lightning, then abruptly reappeared at the centers of the vortexes directly above them.

An earth-shattering boom rang out as golden and silver lightning exploded violently, and it was as if two golden and silver suns had emerged. The two scintillating suns then traveled deep into the vortexes, and in the next instant, devastating bursts of spatial fluctuations suddenly erupted from within the vortexes.

Both of the vortexes then abruptly disappeared along with the black Qi around them, and a pair of golden and silver spatial rifts appeared in their wake. The rifts were only around 70 to 80 feet each, and they hung in mid-air in a completely stationary manner, as if they were motionless snapshots in time.

At this moment, Han Li suddenly sensed that the spiritual sense within his body was flowing into the rift above him at a rapid rate, and expression changed drastically as he yelled, "What are you all waiting for? I won't be able to keep this up for very long!"

The beings who were standing around the formation immediately tossed their formation treasures into the air upon hearing this. Immediately thereafter, they began to make hands seals and chanted in unison.

The formation treasures hovering before them all transformed into balls of light at their behest, all of which disappeared into the formations.

An extremely exuberant display of lights appeared within the formations, following which large runes began to surface all over the place.

As the chanting grew louder and louder, these giant runes began to revolve rapidly within the formations, and their rotational speed only grew faster and faster. In the end, these runes transformed into bursts of five-colored light that swept up all of the beings inside the two formations. Immediately thereafter, the bursts of five-colored light flew straight into the golden and silver rifts up above.

Almost as soon as the two balls of five-colored light vanished into the spatial rifts, the latter also disappeared in a flash, and the sky slowly returned to normal as all of the dark clouds also dissipated.

Qian Jizi and the others had witnessed this entire process, and only now did they allow themselves to heave a collective sigh of relief.

Right at this moment, the white-robed man's cold voice rang out from within the hall again.

"The Vast Glacial Realm will open again in a year, and activating the formations again at that time will allow everyone to return here. During this time, make sure to keep the two formations extremely well-guarded, and don't let irrelevant beings approach them. Kill anyone who dares to try and approach the formations for no good reason!"

"Yes!"

Everyone on the entire plaza extended respectful bows toward the hall in unison.

After that, all of the beings who had activated the formation treasures earlier dispersed from around the formations, and they were replaced by teams of silver-armored warriors, as well as a dozen or so giant puppets. These guards then surrounded the formations in a virtually airtight barrier.

After entering the golden and silver spatial rift, Han Li was struck by a rush of dizziness, followed by a complete sensory deprivation.

However, moments later, he was afflicted by a splitting headache, and his vision returned to him as he hurriedly inspected his surroundings.

Upon doing so, he discovered that he was situated high up in the air. Below him was a vast ocean that stretched as far as the eyes could see in all directions, and Shi Kun, Liu Shui'er, as well as everyone else on his team, were situated within a radius of several hundred feet around him.

Most of them were still rather disoriented, seemingly having yet to recover from the effects of teleporting into the Vast Glacial Realm.

After inspecting his surroundings, a grey-haired elderly man immediately burst into raucous laughter. "Haha, I've finally made it to the Vast Glacial Realm! With the vast abundance of spiritual Qi here, I'll have a much greater chance of reaching the holy race. Fellow Daoists, I'm going to find a place to go into seclusion, so I'll be taking my leave now." He then swept a sleeve through the air, and spiritual light flashed from his body, following which he sped away as a streak of silver light, disappearing from view after just a few flashes.

Everyone glanced at one another upon seeing this, and three more people also departed in different directions without uttering a single word, quickly vanishing into the distance as well.

The remaining eleven people remained standing on the spot with different expressions on their faces, and they were yet to decide what they were going to do next.

"Fellow Daoists, the Vast Glacial Realm presents a fantastic opportunity to break through your bottlenecks, but make sure that's not the only thing you do here. There are many treasures to be found in this place as well, and I suggest we all stick together so we can look out for one another while searching for these treasures; what do you all say?" The one who had spoken was an extremely short being with a triangular head.

A burly man with several thick golden rings around his arms chuckled coldly as he said, "I do indeed plan on joining forces with others, but I'm not interested in hunting for treasures with you, Fellow Daoist Jin. You've forged a reputation for yourself among our Heavenly Cloud Races for your shamelessness and deceitful nature; even if we were to find treasures together, I'd be afraid that you'd stab me in the back. Brother Feng, Brother Yun, let's team up together." The twins from the Azure Race seemed to have forged an agreement with the burly man already, and the three of them immediately sped away together.

Thus, there were only eight beings left.

Han Li wasn't surprised to see this at all, and he smiled as he waved a hand toward Shi Kun and Liu Shui'er. "Let's go as well, Fellow Daoists."

"Haha, I thought you'd never ask," Shi Kun chuckled in response.

Liu Shui'er merely nodded in a silent reply.

Thus, Han Li's trio also departed toward a certain direction as the remaining beings looked on with hints of bewilderment in their eyes.

As for whether the rest of those beings teamed up or went off on their own, that was naturally none of Han Li's concern.

The three of them all flew quite quickly, and it only took them a short while to cover several hundreds of kilometers.

At this moment, Liu Shui'er suddenly said, "Fellow Daoist Han, my master suggested that we should find an obscure place to practice our Divine Essencefused Light combination secret technique first before we do anything else. After mastering the secret technique, we'd be much better equipped to protect ourselves in this perilous realm."

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Shi Kun was a menacing-looking man who appeared as if his entire body had been constructed from grey rocks, and he shook his head as he said, "Why do we need to go through the hassle of doing that? With our combined powers, as long as we don't encounter some of the most powerful beings in this realm, we'll be more than able to look after ourselves. Even though we have an entire year before we get teleported back to Cloud City, we still don't know where we are at the moment, and there may not be enough time for us to make breakthroughs and also track down those restricted ruins. As such, I think we should make haste and skip any trivial activities that aren't necessary."

"Fellow Daoist Shi, The Divine Essencefused Light combination secret technique is something that my master invented specifically for this trip after expending an extensive amount of painstaking effort, and it's far more powerful than you can imagine. I insist that we should rehearse the technique first. Otherwise, it'll be too late for regrets once we encounter a powerful enemy," Liu Shui'er countered in a slightly cold voice, clearly rather displeased by Shi Kun's words.

"Is that so? I still think that compared to this, it's much more important for us to get to the restricted ruins as quickly as possible, then use the remaining time to break through our bottlenecks. I haven't cultivated any combination techniques in the past, but I've still reached the current level of power, have I not?" Shi Kun chuckled coldly, clearly unwilling to back down, either.

Liu Shui'er expression cooled even further upon hearing this, and she turned to Han Li as she asked, "What do you think, Fellow Daoist Han?"

Han Li thought about this for a moment before suggesting, "I think that seeing as neither of you is willing to back down, we should find a middle-ground that both of you can agree on. I suggest that we do practice this combination secret technique, but we only spend half a month doing so. At the conclusion of that period of time, we set off in search of the restricted ruins regardless of whether we've mastered the technique or not. In that case, we'll be able to familiarize ourselves slightly with the secret technique, and I'm sure half a month isn't too long to wait for Brother Shi."

"Well..."

"Alright, we'll do as you say, Fellow Daoist Han."

Liu Shu'er was rather hesitant upon hearing this proposal, but Shi Kun quickly agreed to it after a brief moment of contemplation.

"Seeing as both of you support this course of action, I have no choice but to agree as well," Liu Shui'er replied with a reluctant nod.

"In that case, let's find somewhere suitable for us to practice the secret technique first," Han Li said with a smile.

Neither Shi Kun nor Liu Shui'er had any objections to this, so the three of them immediately sped up by about twofold, hurtling through the air like a trio of shooting stars while releasing their spiritual sense into the area around them.

They had thought that they'd be able to find a small island quite quickly, but much to their surprise, they only caught sight of a small island in the distance that was less than 10 kilometers in size after flying for an entire day and an entire night.

At this point, the sun was just beginning to set, and the entire sky above the island was filled with a warm red light. However, the surface of the nearby ocean was completely black, as if it had been stained by a vast spillage of black paint.

Upon seeing this island, Han Li's trio immediately slowed down, then reappeared several kilometers away as they appraised the area with wary expressions on their faces.

"My spiritual sense can't detect what lies below the island, and the sea around it is also teeming with demonic Qi. It appears that a certain demon beast has taken over this island," Shi Kun speculated with a grim expression.

"Indeed. There's only one sea beast under the island, but it's not a very powerful one; its cultivation base seems to be comparable to my own," Han Li said in a slow voice as blue light flashed through his eyes.

"You can sense what lies beneath this island?" Liu Shui'er was rather surprised to hear this.

She was in a similar situation to Shi Kun in that as soon as her spiritual sense approached the island, it would become quite blurry and indistinct. It appeared that the sea in the nearby area possessed certain properties that hampered one's spiritual sense.

"I was lucky to have mastered some special secret techniques in the past, and possess an alternative sensory ability aside from my spiritual sense," Han Li replied in a calm manner.

"That's fantastic! With that ability of yours, we'll be able to avoid a lot of danger, Brother Han." Shi Kun was quite elated to hear this.

Han Li merely offered a smile in response.

Liu Shui'er's eyes also lit up, and she said, "Indeed, our trip will be made a lot safer by this ability of yours, Fellow Daoist Han. Seeing as this island has been taken over by a sea beast, let's go and find another place to settle. It's not worth wasting magic power fight for an island like this."

On this occasion, Shi Kun agreed with Liu Shui'er suggestion, and he immediately nodded to express his approval.

However, Han Li shook his head after a brief moment of contemplation.

"Even if we find some other place, the situation won't be any better."

"Oh? What do you mean by that, Brother Han?" Shi Kun was rather taken aback to hear this.

Liu Shui'er also turned to him with a hint if befuddlement in her eyes.

As opposed to answering the question, Han Li replied with a question of his own. "What did you two think about the speed that we traveled at to get here?"

"It was alright. We didn't travel at full speed, but for me, that was around 60% to 70% of my full speed," Shi Kun replied.

"That's exactly the point. We've traveled for an entire day and an entire night at this speed, so we must've covered millions of kilometers already. On top of that, we've been using our spiritual sense to scour through the surrounding area this entire time, so don't you find it strange that we've only come across this one island after all this time?" Han Li sighed.

"What are you trying to say, Fellow Daoist Han? I'm not the sharpest when it comes to things like this, and I hate it when people speaking a roundabout manner," Shi Kun harrumphed in an impatient manner.

A faint smile appeared on Han Li's face upon hearing this; he certainly wasn't going to believe that Shi Kun was as ignorant as he was making himself seem.

"Are you trying to say that something's a little off about the sea here, and that even if we were to find other islands, they would've most likely been taken over by other sea beasts already?" Liu Shui'er asked.

"That's exactly what I mean. This island has already been taken over by a sea beast, but it's not very powerful at all, and we'll be able to take care of it easily. I think that's a much better course of action than wasting time searching for other islands," Han Li explained in a slow voice.

"That makes sense. Alright, we'll do as you say, Brother Han. In any case, the three of us will definitely be able to take care of this sea beast without any problems," Shi Kun said as a ferocious look flashed through his eyes.

"I also think this is a good idea." Liu Shui'er nodded in agreement after a brief pause.

"Alright, in that case, let's make some preparations. As a safety precaution, I'm going to set up a temporary formation so we can kill this sea beast without any being noticed by any other beasts in the area," Han Li said in a calm manner.

Shi Kun and Liu Shui'er naturally posed no objections to this.

Thus, Han Li flipped a hand over, and a stack of formation flags appeared over his palm. He tossed the formation flags into the air, then made a hand seal as he began to chant something.

A dozen or so streaks of light of different colors immediately surged toward the ocean before vanishing in a flash.

In the next instant, a dozen or so thick pillars of light suddenly erupted from the sea down below. These pillars of light then dispersed to form a barely-visible white light barrier than encompassed the entire island.

"I'll also lend you my assistance," Liu Shui'er suddenly said as she raised a hand into the air, sending a yellow disk hurtling forth before instantly flying into the air over 1,000 feet above the white light barrier.

She then pointed a finger up above, and the yellow disk rotated on the spot before also emitting a yellow light barrier that encompassed Han Li's white light barrier within it.

"With these restrictions set up, I'm sure we won't attract any attention even if we battle all-out in there," Liu Shui'er said in a calm voice.

"Haha, in that case, I'll be able to fight to my heart's content," Shi Kun chortled with glee as yellow light flashed from his body, and he immediately donned a suit of yellow armor.

Immediately thereafter, Shi Kun flew through the two restriction barriers, hurtling directly toward the island.

From afar, he looked like a yellow shooting star plummeting from the sky.

The streak of yellow light crashed down into a forest at the very center of the island with a resounding boom, and yellow shockwaves that were visible to the naked eye proliferated in all directions. All of the trees, rocks, and mountains that stood in the path of these yellow shockwaves were all instantly pulverized into powder.

In the blink of an eye, the entire island had been razed to the ground.

At the center of the island, Shi Kun stood proudly in a massive crater that was several feet deep, and he was in the process of slowly withdrawing his fist from the ground.

He had essentially destroyed everything on the island with just a single punch.

Liu Shui'er shuddered slightly at the sight of Shi Kun's terrifying destructive power, and Han Li's eyes also narrowed slightly.

It appeared that Shi Kun's confidence and his unwillingness to cultivate the combination secret technique certainly wasn't unwarranted.

"I'd always known that Stone Cocoon beings were renowned for possessing powerful bodies, but it appears that Fellow Daoist Shi must've also used quite a powerful cultivation art. Otherwise, there's no way that an upper race being could be capable of unleashing such devastating might," Liu Shui'er murmured to herself, but also seemingly to Han Li as well.

Han Li's expression remained unchanged, as if he hadn't even heard what had just been said.

Shi Kun seemed to be quite pleased with his own handiwork, and he raised his head as if he were about to say something to Han Li and Liu Shui'er.

However, right at this moment, the entire island tremored violently, and the black seawater around it also began to churn as if it were being boiled.

Seven or eight thick black objects then erupted from the seawater around the small island, and each of these objects was 2,000 to 3,000 feet tall, extending into the clouds like giant black pillars.

However, these pillars had fleshy bumps all over them and were squirming incessantly, creating quite a harrowing sight to behold.

Han Li immediately focused his gaze to discover that these were all gargantuan tentacles.

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Not only were these tentacles covered in dark green patterns, they were also riddled with massive suction cups the size of wagon wheels, creating a truly disturbing sight.

As soon as these tentacles emerged, Shi Kun stomped a foot into the ground, and his body shot forth like an arrow, taking him to the nearest tentacle in a flash before he swiped an arm through the air.

A streak of yellow light hurtled forth like a giant blade that was over 100 feet long, slicing through one of the massive tentacles with ease.

A massive fountain of green blood immediately spurted into the air, and rank green blood began to rain down from the sky.

Shi Kun let loose a burst of raucous laughter upon seeing this, and his body swayed as he prepared to fly toward another tentacle.

However, a thunderous roar suddenly erupted from below the island, causing the entire sky in the nearby area to tremor audibly.

Shi Kun faltered in mid-air as his expression changed slightly, and right at this moment, the sea beast's severed tentacle suddenly whipped violently through the air.

The bleeding from the wound immediately ceased, and bursts of putrid green mist were blasted forth from within.

Shi Kun was clearly an extremely experienced warrior, and he immediately retreated upon seeing this, flying back to over 300 feet away to distance himself from this green mist.

However, as opposed to attacking Shi Kun, the green mist in the air suddenly manifested into a complete tentacle that was identical to one he had just severed.

Shi Kun's expression darkened upon seeing this, and he immediately swiped his arm through the air again to unleash another devastating streak of yellow light.

However, on this occasion, all of the suction cups on the newly formed tentacle immediately compressed before expanding to expel bursts of black light.

The yellow streak of light struck the black light with a loud clang, followed by the sharp screeching sound of metal grating on metal. The yellow streak of light was able to slice through part of the black light, but it finally fizzled out into nothingness just before it could reach the sea beast's tentacle.

At this moment, the roar erupting from below the island became even louder, and the tentacle came crashing down toward Shi Kun with mountainous force.

Before it had even struck him, fierce gusts of wind were swept up, making it quite difficult for Shi Kun to stand still on the spot.

A ferocious look appeared on his face, and he let loose a loud roar as he launched a fist into the air.

Han Li and Liu Shui'er were both spectating the battle intently from above, and they noticed that in the instant Shi Kun unleashed that punch, his fist swelled up like a balloon to five to six times its original size.

Furthermore, several yellow runes emerged from the giant fist before exploding in unison, and a yellow halo swept forth, forming shockwave-like ripples of light.

As soon as the giant tentacle came into contact with the yellow light, its skin was twisted and warped as if it had been stirred up by some kind of immense force. Immediately thereafter, the tentacle began to essentially disintegrate as it fell from above as chunks of skin and flesh, along with gushing green blood.

This punch seemed to be even more powerful than the one Shi Kun had unleashed to flatten the entire small island.

Even Han Li's eyelids twitched involuntarily upon seeing this.

However, the sea beast below the island had clearly been completely enraged by this attack, and it let loose a violent roar as its remaining few tentacles whipped through the air in unison, forming countless black shadows that crashed directly toward Shi Kun.

These tentacles were so massive that they were sweeping up a hurricane that encompassed the entire island.

Black shadows and gale-force winds intertwined, completely inundating Shi Kun in the process.

"Looks like we won't need to do anything; Fellow Daoist Shi should be enough to take care of this sea beast on his own," Liu Shui'er sighed as she looked on from above.

"Indeed. Brother Shi possesses an extremely powerful body, so this sea beast will inevitably be killed eventually. However, this thing seems to possess an immortal body ability, so it's best that we enter the ocean and kill its main body first. After all, it won't be a good thing to have this battle drag on for too long," Han Li replied after a brief pause.

"That's true. I just so happen to be using a water-attribute cultivation art, so I'll take care of this," Liu Shui'er replied with a nod.

Han Li was rather surprised to hear this, but he merely smiled, and agreed, "In that case, I'll leave everything to you, Fairy Liu."

Thus, Liu Shui'er made a hand seal, and blue light flashed from her body as she sped directly downward as a streak of blue light, vanishing into the ocean after just a few flashes.

Almost at the exact same moment, a string of resounding booms rang out from the small island, which had been entirely enshrouded under fierce winds and black shadows.

Han Li cast his gaze toward the island to discover balls of piercing yellow light forcibly tearing their way through the powerful winds. At the same time, an astonishingly scorching aura erupted into the heavens, causing even the two restriction barriers up above to tremor slightly.

Amid these resounding booms, Shi Kun's raucous laughter was still clearly audible, and he seemed to have only just gotten warmed up.

"Is he a berserker? I'd only ever heard of such beings in the past, but I appear to be witnessing one in action right now," Han Li murmured to himself with a wry smile on his face while sweeping a sleeve through the air.

A burst of azure light swept forth, disappearing into the white light barrier in a flash, and the restriction barrier fell completely still again.

Thus, Shi Kun continued in his rampage on the small island, constantly pulverizing the tentacles around him, while the tentacles of the sea beast quickly regenerated amid a burst of green mist.

Thus, the two of them came to an impasse of sorts.

However, moments later, the beastly roars erupting from below the island suddenly took an anguished turn, and the seawater down below began to churn violently. A massive wave that was over 1,000 feet tall was swept up without any premonition before hurtling toward the small island with devastating might.

If such an astonishingly powerful wave really were to strike the island, there was a good chance that it would sink.

Han Li's expression darkened slightly as he looked on from above, and he immediately extended a pristine white palm of his sleeve, then spread his fingers open before making a grabbing motion.

Five bursts of five-colored glacial flames immediately erupted from his fingertips, injecting themselves into the white light barrier encompassing the island in a flash.

The light barrier immediately took on the five colors of the glacial flames, and at this moment, the giant wave crashed down upon it.

The five-colored light barrier appeared to be extremely thin and fragile, but as five-colored light swept over its surface, all of the seawater was instantly frozen into glacial ice.

Thus, a peculiar scene ensued.

A massive dome of blue ice appeared over the island, keeping all of the oncoming waves of seawater at bay while the small island itself remained completely unscathed.

Han Li nodded with a pleased expression upon seeing this before withdrawing his hand.

The giant waves only crashed into the wall of ice a few times before they subsided, and the entire surface of the ocean suddenly became remarkably calm.

Just as a contemplative expression had appeared on Han Li's face, a resounding boom rang out as a humanoid figure flew up from the island, then appeared in mid-air.

"What happened? Why isn't that sea beast attacking anymore? Could it be that Fellow Daoist Liu decided to lend me a hand?"

The humanoid figure was naturally none other than Shi Kun, and he was looking at Han Li with a hint of confusion in his eyes.

Han Li smiled upon hearing this, yet just as he was about to say something, a massive black vortex suddenly appeared on the surface of the ocean beside the island. The seawater nearby revolved around the vortex as the mountainous body of a black beast rose to the surface, revealing itself to be a gargantuan black octopus.

However, not only was this octopus extraordinarily huge, it also possessed the face of a ferocious-looking human male.

There were even two thick arms attached to its body alongside the giant tentacles, and attached to each of those arms was a hand that was wielding a crimson spear-like weapon.

A burst of blue light shot forth out of the water from beside the giant sea beast's carcass, then abruptly appeared in the air beside Han Li.

The blue light faded, and Liu Shui'er's gorgeous figure was revealed.

"So it really was you, Fairy Liu. Tsk tsk, you must have some tricks up your sleeve to be able to take care of this giant beast so quickly," Shi Kun said with a hint of surprise in his eyes.

"It wasn't much. If it weren't for the fact that you'd attracted most of the beast's attention, I wouldn't have been able to kill it anywhere near as easily. I must say, you're abilities are quite impressive, Fellow Daoist Han; you've even managed to freeze such a vast quantity of seawater," Liu Shui'er remarked as she took a glance at the massive dome of ice down below.

"Hehe, there's no need for you two to be so modest. Seeing as the beast has been slain, let's withdraw these restrictions and settle on the island," Han Li chuckled.

Shi Kun and Liu Shui'er naturally had no objections to this, and the former immediately began to descend toward the island.

Meanwhile, Han Li and Liu Shui'er both made hand seals to withdraw their restrictions.

"Brother Han, we can't just leave this dome of ice here; it's far too eye-catching," Liu Shui'er said as she pointed downward.

Han Li seemed to have considered this issue already, and he quickly replied, "Of course; I'll melt it right away."

After that, he opened his mouth to expel a silver fireball, which immediately transformed into a silver Fire Raven that was around a foot in size.

"Go," Han Li instructed as he swept a sleeve toward the Fire Raven.

The Fire Raven spread its wings before diving headfirst into the dome of ice amid a clear cry.

A peculiar scene then ensued.

The dome of glacial ice that was as hard as rock began to melt away in large sections from the spot that the Fire Raven had disappeared into it, reverting back to churning seawater before raining down from above.

Within just a few minutes, the entire dome of ice had vanished.

Only then did Han Li raise a hand, and the silver Fire Raven immediately re-emerged before disappearing up his sleeve in after just a few flashes.

"You possess both fire and ice-attribute abilities? That's very rare, Fellow Daoist Han!" Liu Shui'er said with a hint of surprise in her eyes.

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"These are just a few little tricks that aren't all that noteworthy," Han Li replied with a modest smile before also slowly descending toward the island.

Liu Shui'er's brows furrowed slightly, and she was forced to swallow the questions that she was about to ask as she also descended as a streak of blue light.

At this moment, Shi Kun had already been waiting for a short at the center of the island.

He'd also witnessed Han Li unleashing his Fire Raven to melt that dome of ice, but his expression remained quite calm, in stark contrast with the insanity he'd just displayed in battle.

Han Li's heart stirred slightly upon seeing this.

"We don't have much time, so let's start practicing the combination secret technique right away," Shi Kun suggested as soon as Han Li and Liu Shui'er descended nearby.

"Of course. However, this secret technique has to have a main instigator while the other two play supportive roles, and it's best for the leader to be the one with the most powerful Divine Essencefused Light. The three of us should unleash our respective Divine Essencefused Light to decide on who the leader should be," Liu Shui'er replied with a nod.

"I have no issue with that. I've heard that Fairy Liu possesses a natural Essencefused Body, while I possess an acquired Essencefused Body; I wonder which one is more powerful." Shi Kun's eyes lit up with a hint of excitement as he spoke.

"I think we'll both have our strengths and weaknesses. Due to the fact that I possess a natural Essencefused Body, I have great control over my Divine Essencefused Light, as if it's an extension of my body, but cultivating it is very difficult for me. In contrast, with an acquired Essencefused Body, you're able to enhance your powers easily using external help," Liu Shui'er analyzed in a calm manner.

"But those with natural Essencefused Bodies have a chance to evolve their Divine Essencefused Light; that's something the likes of myself can't compare with. On top of that, I had to endure a lot of suffering to acquire this body. Fellow Daoist Han, I've heard that you're different from both of us in that you're only able to unleash the Divine Essencefused Light through the use of an Essencefused Treasure; is that true?" Shi Kun chuckled as he turned toward Han Li.

"That is indeed true. My Divine Essencefused Light definitely can't compete with you two, so I won't participate in this contest," Han Li replied with a nonchalant smile.

Shi Kun stared at Han Li for a moment upon hearing this, but didn't press him any further as he said, "In that case, we won't force the issue, Brother Han. Why don't you have a sparring match with me, Fairy Liu?"

Liu Shui'er nodded before slowly rising up into the air until she was hovering over 200 feet above the ground.

For some reason, she also seemed to be very interested in Shi Kun's acquired Essencefued Body.

Shi Kun let loose a low cry, and yellow light flashed all over his body as he rose up to the same altitude as Liu Shui'er before facing her in mid-air.

Meanwhile, Han Li flew back to over 1,000 feet away, leaving a trail of afterimages in his wake before looking up in an expressionless manner.

He didn't have any interest in leading the combination secret technique, but he was rather interested to see how powerful the Divine Essencefused Light of these two beings were.

At this moment, Shi Kun let loose a loud cry as his skin gradually turned black, transforming him into what appeared to be a black rock golem. Immediately thereafter, he made a hand seal, and grey light instantly took the place of the yellow light around his body.

This was none other than the Divine Essencefused Light.

"Look out now, Fairy Liu!" Shi Kun warned before raising an arm and spreading his fingers apart before making a grabbing motion.

A pillar of grey light immediately shot forth from his palm, but as soon as it left his body, it transformed into thousands of grey threads of light that filled the entire sky.

Han Li's eyes narrowed slightly as he looked on from down below.

Liu Shui'er made a hand seal in an unhurried manner upon seeing this, and grey light also erupted from her graceful body, forming a massive wheel of light with a radius of 30 to 40 feet behind her, and the wheel was slowly rotating behind her.

The center of the wheel flashed, and a burst of grey light swept forth, hurting directly toward the oncoming threads of light.

The two clashed in an instant, resulting in a loud explosion.

Both of them were using the same type of power, so none of the Divine Essencefused Light's advantages over other types of powers could play a role here. As such, this battle could only be decided purely by the powers of their respective Divine Essencefused Light.

Following the conclusion of the explosion, all of the grey light had vanished into nothingness, and it appeared that their first clash had concluded in a tie.

"Splendid! Now see if you can handle this!" Shi Kun chortled as he suddenly slammed his hands together in front of his chest.

His black rocky body shuddered as a burst of piercing grey light emerged, and it was as if he'd transformed into a scintillating grey sun that was too bright to be directly appraised.

A serious expression appeared on Liu Shui'er's face for the first time, and she immediately made a series of quick hand seals while chanting something at the same time.

The grey wheel of light behind her blurred before rotating at a rapid rate, and countless runes surged forth from it in a frenzy, shattering before converging again.

In the blink of an eye, a massive rune had taken shape at the center of the wheel of light.

"Go!" Shi Kun let loose a low cry as he swept both arms through the air, and they transformed into countless projections that hurtled through the air, as if he'd unleashed hundreds of punches in a split second.

Each and every fist projection then transformed into a head-sized ball of grey light, and hundreds of them rushed toward Liu Shui'er in a frenzy, creating quite an intimidating sight to behold.

In the face of such an astonishing assault, Liu Shui'er merely harrumphed coldly before pointing a finger up ahead.

A burst of buzzing immediately rang out from the grey wheel of light behind her, and its rotation came to an abrupt halt as the massive rune shot forth from its center.

A peculiar scene then unfolded.

As soon as the rune sped into the air, it swelled drastically in size, reaching several hundred feet in just a few flashes. It continued on toward the balls of grey light in a soundless manner, obscuring virtually the entire sky.

After striking the massive rune, all of the balls of light vanished in a flash like sandcastles being swept away by the rising tide.

Shi Kun had grey light flashing from his hands, and he was about to unleash a second wave of attacks, but his expression immediately faltered upon seeing this. After a short while, he lowered his hands as a wry smile appeared on his face.

"That's enough for me. As expected of a natural Essencefused Body; my acquired body simply can't compare. There's no way that I'll be able to beat that attack."

Shi Kun made no effort to prolong this sparring match, immediately conceding after deciding that there was no chance for victory, then descended back onto the ground.

"There's no need to be so depressed, Fellow Daoist Shi. I only recently grasped that ability, and I wouldn't have unleashed it had it not been for the fact that you'd thrown such a devastating attack at me. In reality, the power of your Divine Essencefused Light is quite comparable to mine," Liu Shui'er chuckled in consolation before pointing a finger at the giant rune.

The rune immediately shattered amid a flash of grey light, then disintegrated into specks of grey light that surged back into the grey wheel.

Following a gentle wave of her arm, the grey wheel of light disappeared in a flash, and she also slowly descended from up above.

"Hehe, there's no need to try and flatter me, Fellow Daoist Liu; I'm well aware of the extent of my abilities. I gave everything I could just then, but you probably only used 60% to 70% of the power of your Divine Essencefused Light at most. I don't know about Fellow Daoist Han, but there's no way that I can match you in this aspect," Shi Kun replied in a nonchalant manner.

"Even Brother Shi is no match for Fairy Liu, so there's no way that I can compare when my Divine Essencefused Light is merely stemming from a treasure," Han Li said with a hint of a smile on his face.

Liu Shui'er and Shi Kun naturally didn't' completely believe what Han Li was saying, but seeing as his Divine Essencefused Light really did stem from a treasure, it was most likely the case that it would indeed be inferior in power compared to theirs.

As such, the two of the three of them exchanged some further pleasantries, and they didn't force Han Li to display his power.

Unbeknownst to them, the treasure that Han Li was referring to was an entire Divine Essencefused Mountain. If they'd known that, there was no way that they'd be thinking this way.

Thus, following that sparring match, Liu Shui'er was assigned the leader of the combination secret technique, while Han Li and Shi Kun were to play secondary support roles.

The three of them immediately set up a giant illusionary formation in the nearby area to disguise the fact that the entire island had been razed to the ground, then began to practice the secret technique.

A dozen or so days passed in a flash.

During this time, no other beings or sea beasts passed by the island, so no mishaps occurred.

After three or four more days, the illusionary formation on the island suddenly vanished, and three humanoid figures rose up into the air.

This was naturally none other than Han Li's trio.

Liu Shui'er wore an elated expression, while Han Li remained quite calm, and Shi Kun looked like he simply didn't care.

It appeared that their cultivation on the island had gone very smoothly.

"I didn't think that our cultivation of the combination secret technique would go so smoothly; we've managed to master it in just half a month."

"Hehe, that's mainly because your mastery of the Divine Essencefused Light far outstrips ours. Fellow Daoist Han and I both benefited greatly from cultivating with you," Shi Kun chuckled in reply.

"Indeed, I didn't think that there were so many forms that the Divine Essencefused Light could adopt; I really must thank you for your instruction," Han Li chimed in with a smile.

"You're far too kind, Fellow Daoist; I was only able to master these things as I possess a natural Essencefused Body. If you two were in my shoes, I'm sure your mastery of the Divine Essencefused Light would only be superior to mine," Liu Shui'er chuckled in a modest manner.

"That's enough exchanges of pleasantries; let's go and find those restricted ruins as soon as we can. There's no way to ascertain where we are now in the middle of the ocean, so we have to find land first before deciding where to go next," Shi Kun suggested.

Han Li and Liu Shui'er naturally had no objections to this.

Thus, the three of them picked a certain direction before flying toward it.

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The three of them flew for four days and four nights, encountering only a few islands along the way.

All of these islands had been taken over by other sea beasts, all of whom possessed extremely powerful auras.

Sea beasts of this caliber weren't powerful enough to scare the three of them away, but they were clearly far more powerful than the octopus beast, so even the three of them would've had some difficulty facing them.

As such, both Liu Shui'er and Shi Kun were quite relieved that they'd listened to Han Li's advice. Otherwise, they would've had to delay the cultivation of that secret technique after they'd found land.

However, land was clearly not that easy to find.

On the fifth morning, a faint black line finally appeared on the surface of the ocean in the distance, and all three of them were quite elated to see this.

"We've finally flown out of this accursed ocean," Shi Kun laughed heartily.

Liu Shui'er was also quite elated, but she cautioned, "You should still be on your guard, Fellow Daoist Shi. According to the experience of those who have come before us, land is far more dangerous here than the ocean. We may have found land, but it's best to withdraw our auras so we don't end up alerting any powerful ancient beasts to our presence."

"Don't worry, Fairy Liu, I do enjoy a good battle, but I'm well aware of my limitations," Shi Kun replied in a nonchalant manner.

Liu Shui'er was feeling slightly more reassured upon hearing this.

With Shi Kun's cultivation base and experience, she naturally shouldn't have to issue such a reminder, but Shi Kun seemed to enjoy battling a little too much, which was why she had been slightly concerned.

A faint smile appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this, and he was just about to say something as well when violent winds were suddenly swept up in the distance over the surface of the ocean. A cloud of murky white mist began to appear, and it was spreading at a rapid rate.

"What's that?" Han Li was rather taken aback by this sudden development.

Liu Shui'er and Shi Kun had naturally also witnessed the strange scenes unfolding up ahead, and they exchanged a slightly bewildered glance with one another.

Without the need for any further communication, all three of them stopped cold in their tracks before casting their eyes toward the distant shore.

Almost as the exact same moment, a loud cry rang out from the shore, and the sea of mist that was a few acres in size churned violently along with the ocean around it.

At the same time, an astonishing primordial aura erupted into the heavens from below the mist.

Immediately thereafter, a giant beast that was several times larger than even the giant octopus they'd slain surfaced from the ocean. This was a furry giant ape-like beast with a single horn on its head.

As soon as the beast flew out of the sea, it threw its head back and let loose an unbearably sharp cry.

As soon as Han Li's trio heard this loud cry, their expressions changed drastically, and spiritual light flashed from their bodies as they hurriedly conjured up thick light barriers to shield themselves within, then exchanged fearful glances with one another.

As soon as the sharp screech had reached their ears, their eardrums had been struck by a sharp pain. At the same time, the blood within their bodies began to churn violently, causing their limbs to experience an uncomfortable pins and needles sensation.

The three of them were naturally quite startled by this.

However, unbeknownst to them, this was only just the beginning.

In the next instant, the sharp screech emanating from the giant beast's mouth suddenly turned into a thunderous roar that caused the nearby air to tremor audibly.

Not only did the surrounding sea mist quickly disperse as a result of this almighty roar, countless vortexes of different sizes had been formed in the nearby seawater as well.

Countless fish of all types floated to the surface with their bellies facing the heavens, having been killed by the soundwaves from the sea beast's devastating roar.

All of a sudden, the surface of the ocean in a radius of around 50 kilometers was riddled with fish carcasses.

At this moment, the light barriers around the bodies of Han Li and the others began to tremor violently, as if they were being dealt heavy blows, and their expressions darkened significantly.

Liu Shui'er had turned completely pale, and her body was trembling involuntarily, looking as if she were going to plummet downward at any moment.

Shi Kun's body was as still as a mountain, but there were thick veins pulsing on his forehead, and his eyes were threatening to bulge out of their sockets, clearly indicating that he was going through extreme exertion.

Among the three of them, Han Li remained the least affected, and his face had only paled slightly.

Strangely enough, the thunderous roar was exerting an immense amount of pressure toward all three of them, but they were completely unable to move, as if their feet had been rooted to the spot.

The roar erupting from the giant beast's mouth grew louder and louder, and there were now even transparent soundwaves that were visible to the naked eye surging through the air.

After being swept through by these soundwaves, an indentation that was over 100 feet deep was blasted into the nearby surface of the ocean, thereby forming a massive water crater.

Waves that were several thousand feet tall instantly took shape before sweeping forth in all directions as if there was an immense force propelling them from behind.

Han Li and the others were situated several tens of kilometers away, but it still felt as if those waves were going to crash into them at any moment.

Liu Shui'er and Shi Kun were both very alarmed by this development, yet both of them were completely rooted to the spot.

The transparent soundwaves were less than 500 meters away from them after just a few flashes, and Shi Kun finally managed to open his mouth slightly. In doing so, he managed to utter a faint raspy sound, and yellow light began to flash from his body, but he was still completely unable to move.

Sweat began to pour down his forehead as horror appeared in his eyes, as well as in the eyes of Liu Shui'er.

Just as the transparent soundwaves were about to reach them, golden light suddenly flashed past Han Li's face, and he let loose a cold harrumph.

The harrumph wasn't very loud, but Liu Shui'er and Shi Kun both shuddered in response, following which spiritual light flashed from their bodies, and expressions of elation appeared on their faces.

Immediately thereafter, Shi Kun stomped a foot into the air and shot back as a streak of yellow light.

Meanwhile, Liu Shui'er made a hand seal, and her body blurred before she abruptly vanished on the spot.

When she reappeared, she was already over 1,000 feet away.

In just a few flashes, she had traveled close to 10 kilometers, even managing to outspeed Shi Kun in the process.

As for Han Li, he'd already sped away as a streak of golden light after letting loose that cold harrumph.

After all three of them had fled for close to 20 kilometers, all of them finally stopped in their tracks before turning back.

The transparent soundwaves that were surging toward them finally ran out of power a few kilometers away from them.

Unbeknownst to them, right after they'd regained their mobility, a vicious light flashed through the giant sea beast's eyes, and it cast a final glance at the direction they'd fled in before returning to the shore as if nothing had ever happened. Throughout this process, the almighty roar erupting from its mouth didn't cease for even a single moment.

"What kind of sea beast is this? Just its roar alone was enough to restrict our bodies and magic power. Could it be that this is a legendary true spirit Giant Mountain Ape?" Shi Kun said with a hint of lingering fear in his eyes.

Liu Shui'er seemed to have recovered some of her composure, and she said, "It can't be a Giant Mountain Ape. If it really were a true spirit being, then we would've perished to its roar already. Even so, this is not something that we can afford to mess with. I think it better matches the description of a Sea Guardian Ape."

"A Sea Guardian Ape! Is that the legendary ape that's supposedly able to tear wyrms apart with its bare hands and swallow holy race beings alive?" Shi Kun drew a sharp breath upon hearing this.

"That should be it. After all, the roar of the Sea Guardian Ape has been vastly renowned ever since ancient times. We were most likely only able to escape alive because it wasn't directly attacking us, and we were merely in the wrong place at the wrong time," Liu Shui'er mused with a wry smile.

"In that case, we really are very fortunate to have escaped with our lives. If it weren't for Brother Han saving us with that ability of his, the two of us would most likely be dead by now." Shi Kun suddenly cast his gaze toward Han Li with a peculiar look in his eyes.

His expression was also mirrored on Liu Shui'er's face as she said, "Indeed. I didn't think that Brother Han would possess an ability capable of nullifying the roar of a Sea Guardian Ape."

"It's nothing much; I just so happened to have cultivated some secret techniques that were able to provide some resistance against this beast's roar. Thankfully, we were quite far away, so we weren't afflicted by the full power of that roar. Otherwise, even I would've been in trouble as well," Han Li said in an indifferent manner.

Liu Shui'er and Shi Kun exchanged a skeptical glance upon hearing this.

After a brief pause, Liu Shui'er smiled, and said, "In any case, you saved me and Brother Shi. I'll have to repay you for that in the future."

"Indeed, I owe you a massive favor, Brother Han," Shi Kun also chimed in in agreement.

"There's no need to take this to heart, Fellow Daoists. This Vast Glacial Realm is fraught with peril; who knows how many beings just as or even more powerful than that Sea Guardian Ape exist here? It's quite likely that I'll also be needing you two to save my skin from time to time during this trip," Han lI replied with a smile.

"Fellow Daoist Han, you..." Liu Shui'er was just about to say something else when a strange long cry suddenly erupted in the distance alongside the thunderous roar. This was an extremely alluring cry, like the voice of an angel.

The three of them were quite startled to hear this, and their conversation immediately cut off as they cast their eyes toward the distance again.

From such a far distance away, even though the white mist had already been cleared by the soundwaves, they were still only able to catch an indistinct glimpse of what was happening.

There, they discovered that a massive purple bird was flying toward the giant ape from the opposite shore, and it was none other than that bird that was releasing the heavenly cry.

It was too far away for them to get an accurate gauge of the bird's size, but it appeared to be quite comparable in stature to the giant ape.

Furthermore, the bird was completely immune to the effects of the giant ape's roar, and was flying directly toward it.

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"That thing looks to be at least just as powerful as that Sea Guardian Ape; we should get out of here as quickly as possible." Liu Shui'er expression changed upon seeing this, and she immediately made a hand seal before flying away as a streak of blue light without any hesitation.

Even without her reminder, Han Li and Shi Kun knew that a battle between two beings with such devastating powers would likely affect a massive area even beyond the direct vicinity of their battlefield.

As such, they also followed suit and flew away as streaks of light behind Liu Shui'er as quickly as they could.

The three streaks of light quickly vanished into the distance, and moments later, an earth-shattering roar suddenly erupted from the seashore in the distance.

Immediately thereafter, the sounds of fierce winds and thunderclaps intertwined, creating a rumbling commotion that drowned out the roar of the Sea Guardian Ape and the cry of the giant bird.

Almost at the exact same moment, a gargantuan wave that was over 10,000 feet tall swept forth in a frenzy from the seashore, completely inundating the spot where Han Li's trio had been standing mere moments later.

At this point, Han Li's trio had already fled to several hundred kilometers away, then changed direction and flew back toward land after going around in a massive loop.

After the three of them finally flew safely onto land, Shi Kun heaved a faint sigh of relief as he said, "This Vast Glacial Realm really is just as the rumors proclaim it to be; there are so many ancient beasts here that have already gone extinct long ago in our Spirit Realm. If we keep encountering these beings during our journey, we'll most likely dead before we even get to the restricted ruins."

His voice wasn't very loud, but at Han Li and Liu Shui'er's cultivation bases, they were naturally able to hear him quite clearly.

"There are indeed some ancient beasts here, but it's not like they're all over the place. It's most likely the case that we were simply unlucky and stumbled upon the battlefield between two powerful ancient beasts," Liu Shui'er said with a shake of her head.

"Is it really just bad luck? This is quite a bad start to the journey," Shi Kun said with a resigned shrug.

"Cultivators like us are beings who defy the natural order, so we can't completely ignore things like omens, but there's no need to take them completely seriously, either," Liu Shui'er said with a faint smile.

"Hehe, I certainly hope so," Shi Kun chuckled in response.

At the sight of Shi Kun's unconvinced expression, Liu Shui'er spoke no further on this matter, turning to Han Li instead as she said, "Brother Han, we need to ascertain our location in this Vast Glacial Realm first, and we'll need you to be on lookout duty for us."

After the events that had unfolded earlier, Liu Shui'er was clearly being more polite to Han Li.

"No problem," Han Li replied with a nod. He was rather curious about how these two were going to ascertain their current location.

After that, he rose up into the air as a streak of azure light, reaching altitudes in excess of 1,000 feet before revealing himself again.

His spiritual sense was then released, covering the entire area in a radius of several tens of kilometers around them.

Liu Shui'er nodded with a pleased look on her face before turning to Shi Kun as she said, "Let's begin, Fellow Daoist Shi."

"Hehe, I've already got everything prepared," Shi Kun replied without any hesitation.

Thus, Liu Shui'er and Shi Kun abruptly flew away in different directions, then stopping after several hundred had been opened up between them.

Thus, the three of them ended up in a massive triangular formation.

At this moment, Liu Shui'er and Shi Kun both swept their sleeves through the air, releasing a white disk and a yellow scroll, respectively.

The two of then made hand seals while chanting something, and the disk swelled to over 10 times its original size, looking as if it were a massive moon.

Meanwhile, the yellow scroll slowly unfurled to reveal a burst of yellow light, and there seemed to be something lurking within the scroll.

All of a sudden, yellow light flashed, and the entire scroll disappeared.

In the next instant, specks of yellow light surfaced in the air within a radius of over 1,000 feet, and these specks of light flashed before combining as one to form a yellow light barrier that obscured the entire sky.

Shi Kun let loose a low cry upon seeing this before pointing a finger at the artificial moon.

Pure white light swirled around it before disappearing into the yellow light barrier, and the chanting from Liu Shui'er and Shi Kun began to grow louder.

A peculiar scene then ensued.

A loud buzzing sound rang out from the yellow light barrier, following which a series of mountains, rivers, and lakes appeared all over its surface. These landmarks were all extremely tiny, but also remarkably life-like, and it was quite easy to see the differences between the landmarks.

These miniatures images were then split up into blocks that were each around 10 feet in size, creating quite an intriguing sight to behold.

Han Li was naturally able to see the entire light barrier from his vantage point up above, and his eyes narrowed slightly as he asked, "What is that?"

"This is a Vast Glacial Map that my master and Senior Duan refined after collating all of the geographic data collected by the beings who came into the Vast Glacial Realm before us. I wouldn't dare to proclaim that it's a comprehensive map of the entire realm, but around 70% to 80% of the entire realm can be seen in this map," Liu Shui'er explained.

"What we have to do now is ascertain whether we're actually situated in one of the areas included in the map. If not, then things may be a little troublesome for us," Shi Kun said as he pointed a finger at the light barrier.

Brilliant yellow light immediately began to radiate from the entire map, following which an egg-sized spot of white light suddenly emerged from a corner of the map, then hovered over a certain block.

After identifying the area that the white ball of light had settled over, Liu Shui'er's voice trembled slightly as he said, "That's it, we're situated on the border of the Myriad Fowl Ridge, which means we just emerged from the Eight Omens Sea."

Shi Kun's expression also changed drastically upon hearing this.

Han Li was appraising the white ball of light down below with a curious look in his eyes, and he drew a sharp breath after hearing Liu Shui'er's words.

Seeing as they were preparing to enter the Vast Glacial Realm, he'd naturally read many tomes with information regarding the realm, particularly about the renowned perilous locations here, in case he were to stumble into one of them and lose his life there.

The Myriad Fowl Ridge and the Eight Omens Sea were two of the more renowned areas that he'd read about.

As the name suggested, the Eight Omens Sea, which they'd just passed through, was a region of the sea where eight legendary ancient beasts resided. As for the Myriad Fowl Ridge, there were tens of thousands of spirit birds that resided here, three of which were ancient beasts that were no less powerful than the Sea Guardian Ape.

These two areas directly neighbored one another, so this was naturally a very unlucky area to have ended up in.

Thus, all three of them fell silent with their brows furrowed as they stared at the giant light barrier in a grim manner.

"I don't want to have to travel through the Myriad Fowl Ridge. Not even taking into account the three ancient birds there, if even the other spirit birds there were to notice us, we'd be swarmed and killed for sure," Shi Kun said with a dark expression.

"The Myriad Fowl Ridge is indeed extremely perilous. Even though we managed to make it out of the Eight Omens Sea safely, that doesn't mean we'll have the same luck in the Myriad Fowl Ridge, so let's go around it," Han Li chimed in in agreement.

Liu Shui'er glanced at Han Li and Shi Kun before heaving a faint sigh as she said, "Looks like we have no choice but to do that."

Seeing as everyone was on the same page, Shi Kun's expression eased slightly, but his brows were still tightly furrowed as he appraised the giant light barrier.

"Directly neighboring the Myriad Fowl Ridge are the Blue Sun Desert and the Dark Beast Forest. There's no need for us to even consider the Blue Sun Desert; for upper race beings like us, that place is even more fearsome than the Myriad Fowl Ridge. According to records, we'll only be able to withstand the power of the sunlight there for half a day at most before we're incinerated into ashes. In contrast, the Dark Beast Forest contains the Dark Beast Race, which has been extinct for a long time in our Spirit Realm. During the nighttime, these Dark Beasts become several times more powerful than they are during the day, so it's also a very perilous place to traverse through. However, it appears that this is the only option open to us," Liu Shui'er said in a slow voice as she pointed at the light barrier.

"We can't do that. There are very few records about Dark Beasts, which means that very few people have made it out alive from the Dark Beast Forest, so it's still too dangerous for us to go through it. It's best to go around that area as well," Shi Kun immediately objected.

"How do you propose we do that? The restricted ruins are already extremely far away from us, so it'll take us three or four months to get there even if we enjoy a completely smooth journey. If we encounter some obstacles along the way, that number could quite easily double. Just going around the Myriad Fowl Ridge will take close to an extra month, and the Dark Beast Forest is even larger in area, which means it'll take us close to two additional months to go around it. On top of that, we need to save a month or two in order to make our breakthroughs. How will we be able to get there in time, then break the restriction if we keep going around everything?" Liu Shui'er countered in a cold voice.

A hesitant look appeared on Shi Kun's face upon hearing this.

"The Dark Beast Forest does indeed appear to be quite perilous, but there have been beings who have traversed through it in the past. In any case, our records do include some information about how to better handle these creatures in battle, so we should have an even better chance of passing through the forest than those who came before us. Besides, if we go back empty-handed, are you not afraid of being punished by Senior Duan, Fellow Daoist Shi?" Liu Shui'er continued with a cold look in her eyes.

Shi Kun was still rather hesitant, and he suddenly turned to Han Li as he asked, "What do you think, Fellow Daoist Han?"

"I was asked to come here by the two seniors and was promised quite a handsome reward for my efforts, so I'm willing to go anywhere as long as it doesn't spell certain death," Han Li replied in a calm manner.

After a moment of careful contemplation, Shi Kun suddenly chuckled, "Alright, seeing as neither of you fear the Dark Beast Forest, I'll also tag along and see just how fearsome these legendary Dark Beasts are!"

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Liu Shui'er's expression eased slightly upon hearing his response, and her voice also softened slightly as she said, "Seeing as you've come around as well, we need to work together to pass through this Dark Beast Forest. I'm sure we'll be able to succeed in that endeavor with our combined powers."

"Hehe, I certainly hope so," Shi Kun chuckled in response.

Thus, after a brief discussion, the three of them continued flying toward a certain direction along the seashore.

In the blink of eye, they'd disappeared into the distance, but not long after they'd left, two streaks of light, one yellow and one red, appeared on the seashore in a flash.

The lights receded to reveal two foreign beings in different attire, and both of them had rather strange appearances.

One was short and portly, wearing an oversized suit of black armor that almost encompassed his entire head.

His companion was tall and thin, giving off the appearance of a dried corpse, but he was also wearing an oversized set of robes, making it appear as if both of them had suffered bizarre wardrobe malfunctions.

These two were among the few Heavenly Cloud beings that had remained at the spot where they'd first entered the realm following the departure of Han Li's trio.

Both of them were quite disheveled and wore extremely dark expressions on their faces.

The short and portly was drenched in sweat, and there was still a hint of lingering fear in his eyes as he said, "What terrible luck! I can't believe we encountered two ancient beasts at once. If it weren't for the fact that they were too busy battling one another to pay any heed to us, there's no way we would've survived that ordeal. Even so, we still had to detonate several treasures just to get away."

The short and portly being was clearly feeling very dejected that he'd had to waste his treasures under such unfortunate circumstances.

"Hmph, we're already immensely lucky to have been able to escape alive from those two ancient beasts. However, this region of the sea really is quite strange. Not only did we get trapped in that strange mist for over 10 days, we encountered those two ancient beasts right after we escaped out of the mist," the tall and thin being said in a grim voice.

"Thank heavens we finally made it out of the sea. This set of mountain ranges up ahead should be safer, right?" The short and portly being cast his gaze toward the mountain ranges up ahead with an indecisive look on his face.

"Our position disk was completely ineffective in the sea; let's see if it can locate us now that we're on land," the short and thin being suggested after a brief pause.

"Alright, I'll check right away." The short and portly being nodded before opening his mouth to expel a smooth jade disk.

The object rotated in mid-air before expanding to around 10 feet in size. At the same time, white light was shimmering all over its surface, and something seemed to be emerging from it.

The short and portly being suddenly expelled a ball of blood essence, which transformed into a cloud of blood mist.

He then made a series of quick hand seals before pointing a finger at the blood mist, and it vanished into the jade disk.

Bright crimson light began to emanate from the disk, and some features seemed to have appeared on its surface.

The two beings immediately began to appraise the disk with rapt focus.

However, their expressions only darkened even further a few moments later.

"What's going on? The disk still isn't able to ascertain our rough location," the tall and thin being murmured.

"Either we're in a special area where the positioning disk can't function or the two ancient beasts nearby have stirred up the world's origin Qi here, thereby impacting the positioning disk. This disk is quite useful, but it still can't compare with those few legendary treasures," the short and portly being said after a moment of contemplation.

"Hmph, if I'd known it was this useless, I wouldn't have paid such a high price to purchase it during that auction. We spent most of the spirit stones we'd saved up on this thing!" The tall and thin being was clearly rather agitated.

"This thing fails to work from time to time, but without it, there would be no way for us to ascertain our location in this realm. Everyone else paid the same price to purchase it as well, didn't they? Only Crystal beings know how to refine this thing, and every time the Vast Glacial Realm opens, they profit greatly from this invention. I've heard that Crystal beings can also refine better positioning treasures, but I'm not sure if that's true." The short and portly being was also rather dejected.

"So be it, there's no use complaining now. Seeing as this thing can't tell us our current location, let's just get out of here first," the thin and tall being suggested after scanning his spiritual sense carefully through the mountain ranges up ahead.

"I guess we have no choice." His companion nodded after a brief hesitation. Thus, the two of them rose up into the air, quickly flying into the distance. Moments later, they vanished into the mountain ranges, and no one ever heard from or saw them again.

In the air above a forest, three Heavenly Cloud beings had combined into one streak of three-colored spiritual light while hurtling through the air.

Behind them were a dozen or so beasts with lion bodies and elk heads giving chase in hot pursuit.

Even further away, several strange humanoid beings with long white fur growing all over their bodies were flying less than 100 feet in the air above a certain glacier.

The sharp blade-like snowflakes and the icy winds that could instantly freeze a normal being solid didn't affect these humanoid beings in the slightest, and they quickly vanished into the distance.

Deep within a lush forest, two green-robed men with skin that resembled dried yellow tree bark were waving a small red flag each toward a giant tree that was over 100 feet tall up ahead.

The giant tree was remarkably green, but there was a sinister ghoul-like face right at the center of its trunk.

At this moment, the entire tree was enshrouded in scorching flames, and the sinister face letting loose shrill shrieks while blasting forth bursts of green liquid to resist the flames.

A dozen or so extremely thick tree roots were also flailing violently from the soil around the base of the tree, slamming into the ground with devastating force, leaving trenches that were several feet deep in their wake.

If these were normal flames, then perhaps these tree roots really would've been enough to douse them. However, these flames were seemingly inextinguishable, and they clung firmly to the tree roots like projections.

Moments later, the amount of green liquid being expelled by the massive tree was starting to dwindle, and it no longer had the power to resist the surrounding flames. Its shrill cries came to an abrupt halt, and it was incinerated into a pile of ashes.

The two green-robed men withdrew their flags upon seeing this, then flew over to the pile of ashes before leaning down and pulling out a green crystal each.

The two men glanced at one another upon seeing this, and both of them could see their own elation mirrored in each other's eyes.

In a certain secluded corner of the Vast Glacial Realm, there were a dozen or so male and female horned beings huddled together above a boundless desert. All of them were listening to something that was being said by a young man with three short golden horns growing on his head, and from the stunned expressions on their faces, it seemed that they'd heard something extremely incredible.

However, as the young man swept his gaze across his companions, all of them lowered their heads in a display of awe and veneration.

"All of you are clear about our true objective here, right? In order to ensure our success, our elders have used a Profound Heavenly Treasure to refine five extraordinary treasures for us, and even made use of several spies we'd planted in the Heavenly Cloud Races to draw the attention of their higher-ups. I'm sure all of you are aware of what awaits us when we get back if we can accomplish this, so I won't speak any further about that," the golden-horned young man said in a calm voice.

All of the other horned beings were quite excited to hear this, and they replied in unison, "Rest assured, all of us will do everything in our power to achieve this objective."

"Very good. I've been cultivating in the sacred mountain all along, so I haven't known all of you for very long. However, the future prosperity of our race hinges on this, so I'm sure all of you will be giving it your all. We have more than 10 teams that entered the Vast Glacial Realm this time, but only the five teams that possess one of the five treasures have been assigned this task. All of the other teams are only responsible for assisting us and providing decoys so the other races don't see through what we're doing. For now, let's set off as we'd originally planned," the golden-horned man instructed with a pleased nod.

Thus, the group of Jiao Chi beings followed him deeper into the desert.

In the air above a lake, there were two foreign mermaid-like beings standing next to one another.

Before them was a monstrous whale that was over 100 feet in length. There were nine golden eyes on its forehead, and it was appraising the two beings with an extremely astonishing aura emanating from its body.

Among the two foreign beings, the man had a pair of silver eyes, while the woman had a pair of golden eyes that were rather similar to those of the monstrous whale.

The whale was in the process of letting loose a low roar as it appraised the two beings at the same time with its nine eyes, putting on quite an antagonistic display.

Both of the foreign beings wore grim expressions upon seeing this, and after a brief conversation, the woman's golden eyes flashed, and she suddenly let loose a sound that was quite similar to the whale's roar.

The monstrous whale blinked all nine of its eyes in unison, and it seemed to have become rather hesitant upon hearing this sound.

The woman's expression eased upon seeing this, but she didn't stop what she was doing, even for a single instant. Instead, her roar was only growing louder than before.

All of a sudden, the monstrous whale's roar cut off, and golden light flashed in its eyes before its massive body swayed, following which it flew a few laps around the two beings. After returning to its original spot, it let loose another low roar, and on this occasion, and elated look appeared on the woman face upon hearing this. She immediately flew into the air above the monstrous whale, then slowly settled onto its back.

This seemingly extremely powerful whale reacted in quite a benevolent manner, allowing the woman to ride atop its back before flying away as a streak of blue light at her behest.

The woman's male companion naturally followed along closely behind them.

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Even though Dark Beasts weren't the most powerful beasts in the Vast Glacial Realm, even an ancient beast definitely didn't want to face a pack of mature Dark Beasts at night.

For some reason, it was night time in the Dark Beast Forest for about two-thirds of the day, leaving very few remaining hours of daylight in contrast.

There were thousands of Dark Beasts living in the forest, and quite a large proportion of them were mature Dark Beasts.

As such, even though the Dark Beast Forest directly neighbored the Myriad Fowl Ridge and the Eight Omens Sea, none of the powerful ancient beasts nearby had any intention of invading the forest.

This forest was like the backyard of the Dark Beasts, and virtually all of the other beasts that resided within it could only act as prey to the Dark Beasts.

There were a few other types of beasts that also enjoyed enhancements during the night, and only they could pose some threat to the Dark Beasts, but they were all far inferior to the Dark Beasts both in terms of numbers, as well as individual powers.

On this day, close to 100 kilometers away from the border of the Dark Beast Forest, there was a giant python that was 70 to 80 feet in length with azure scales all over its body, facing off against a Dark Beast in a tense confrontation.

This python appeared to be no different from a normal python, but in reality, it was one of the types of beasts in the Dark Beast Forest that could challenge the Dark Beasts.

These types of pythons were known as Azure Night Pythons, and at night, their already powerful bodies would become significantly enhanced, and they would also draw upon the power of the night to enter what was essentially a berserk state.

After undergoing a berserk transformation, these giant pythons possessed powers that were comparable to that of mature Dark Beasts, and they were extremely ferocious and bloodthirsty in battle.

However, this type of transformation naturally also presented many negative after-effects to these Azure Night Pythons.

Not only would they be severely debilitated within the next few years, their lifespans would also be reduced. As such, none of them would undergo such a transformation unless they found themselves in grave danger.

Unfortunately for these Azure Night Pythons, their inner cores were extremely beneficial for Dark Beasts to consume, so if they were to encounter one another in the Dark Beast Forest, a battle to the death would immediately ensue.

This was exactly what was happening right now.

The Azure Night Python had its head raised up high, and it was flicking its dark purple forked tongue in a menacing manner. All of the azure scales on its body had also stood up on end, and it appeared to be ready to pounce at a moment's notice.

The Dark Beast that was facing off against it bore the appearance of a wolf that had swelled to three or four times its normal size. It was completely inky black in color, and its tail was long and thin, like that of a leopard, giving it a graceful and rather feline appearance.

This Dark Beast was slightly thinner than a normal mature Dark Beast, so it had clearly only reached maturity not long ago. However, it wasn't backing down in the slightest as it glowered at the Azure Night Python with ferocity flashing in its eyes.

Strangely enough, the Dark Beast was only staring at the giant python, and didn't immediately pounce toward it.

Most battles between mature Dark Beats and berserk Azure Night Pythons ended with the former securing the inner core of the latter, but there were also cases where Dark Beasts had been devoured by Azure Night Pythons.

As such, the Dark Beast was naturally delighted to have encountered an Azure Night Python here, but it didn't immediately rush into battle.

A berserk Azure Night Python would obviously become a lot more powerful, but in the instant it underwent its transformation, it would expose its weakness, and if the Dark Beast could take advantage of that split-second of weakness, it could kill its opponent in a single well-timed strike.

Meanwhile, the Azure Night Python had adopted a pose that suggested that it was going to go berserk at a moment's notice, but in reality, it didn't dare to do anything rash, either.

Thus, the tense standoff continued.

All of the beasts in the Dark Beast Forest were nocturnal creatures that rested in their caves during the day.

The trees here were extremely tall, and even though they were some distance away from the edge of the forest, the lush branches and leaves up above were still dense enough to almost obscure the entire sky. If one were to try and peer through these lush canopies, they'd only be greeted by the sight of a vast expanse of darkness.

It was currently the darkest time in the night, and if it weren't for some glowing plants nearby, this place would've been completely pitch-black.

Time passed by slowly, and the standoff continued. Both of the creatures were getting rather disgruntled at this point.

Finally, it was the Dark Beast that ran out of patience first.

It let loose a low snark, and it began to slowly stalk the area around the giant python in an entirely soundless, wraith-like manner.

The Azure Night Python began to flick its forked tongue with even greater urgency upon seeing this, and at the same time, it began to hiss in a menacing manner.

However, the ferocious light in the Dark Beast's eyes only grew more pronounced as inky-black claw projections that were half a foot in length each began to appear on its front paws. At the same time, its long and thin tail began to swish through the air, leaving a trail of afterimages in its wake as it cracked like a bullwhip.

The Azure Night Python was carefully appraising the Dark Beast this entire time, so it naturally saw everything that the Dark Beast was doing. Upon seeing the Dark Beast whipping its tail through the air, its hissing suddenly became more urgent, as if it were being provoked.

At the same time, light flashed from its dark azure scales, and its body began to swell up like a balloon, causing the entirety of its snakeskin to be stretched taut.

Almost in the blink of an eye, a sharp tearing sound rang out as the entire snakeskin split open, revealing a serpentine body that was almost one and a half times the size of the original Azure Night python.

This was still a python with azure scales, but the patterns on those scales had become silver, and these patterns intertwined to create a series of runes of different sizes that were flashing with faint silver light.

On top of that, a single horn that was as pristine white as jade had also appeared on the python's head. The horn was in a corkscrew shape, and it looked extremely sharp.

The giant python's green eyes also took on a crimson hue, and they were flashing with a deranged light.

Almost in the exact same instant that the giant python had completed its transformation, the Dark Beast immediately sprang into action.

Black light flashed, and the Dark Beast vanished on the spot.

In the next instant, black light flashed again near one side of the giant pythons's head, and the Dark Beast reappeared, seemingly out of thin air. At the same time, several black claw projections erupted forth, slashing viciously toward the python's neck.

On each berserk Azure Night Python's neck, just below their head, were several red scales. These scales could be considered to be the Achilles' heel of these snakes, and even an ordinary flying sword would be able to inflict grievous wounds on these pythons if the swords were to target those scales.

If the Dark Beast's claw projections could strike that weakness, then the battle would essentially be over.

Of course, this glaring weakness wouldn't constantly be present. In the instant right after entering a berserk state, those scales would turn into the same color as the rest of the python's scales, and in fact, they'd become far more resolute that all of those other scales.

A few dull thumps rang out as the claw projections struck the Azure Night Python's body, but the giant python had instinctively dodged to evade these lethal attacks.

Even so, several red bleeding gashes had been inflicted onto its neck, but they didn't appear to be very deep.

Such a surprise attack naturally completely enraged the giant python, which was already in a semi-deranged state. An explosive roar of fury rang out, following which the python whipped its tail through the air, and a series of azure tail projections appeared before surging toward the Dark Beast.

Even after failing to land a decisive blow with its surprise attack, the Dark Beast remained calm as it swayed, and two streaks of black light shot forth from its body before transforming into a pair of black beings.

These two shadow-like beings were extremely similar in appearance to the Dark Beast, except their bodies were quite blurry and indistinct, and were flashing with dark grey spiritual light.

As soon as they appeared, they also pounced through the air alongside the Dark Beast.

The Dark Beast and its two projections then unleashed claw projections in unison, which instantly clashed with the azure projection sweeping through the air.

Following an earth-shattering explosion, the projections all disappeared at the same time, and it appeared that the first clash had ended in a tie.

Immediately thereafter, a ball of azure light erupted in the air above the Dark Beast, following which a giant python head emerged from within the light. The python head then came crashing down at an astonishing speed, swallowing one of the Dark Beast projections whole before hurtling toward the other one.

Right at this moment, the actual Dark Beast emerged from the side, then opened its mouth up as wide as it would go, revealing rows of dagger-like teeth that before pouncing toward the giant python.

Despite how thick the Azure Night Python's body was, if those giant jaws were to clamp down on it, it would definitely be bitten into two halves.

However, after going berserk, the Azure Night Python's speed was not inferior to that of the Dark Beast, and it abruptly withdrew its head before also opening its cavernous mouth and turning toward the Dark Beast.

At this moment, the body of its original target, the other Dark Beast projection, suddenly elongated to an incredible extent as it hurtled directly toward the Azure Night Python.

Thus, the two beasts clashed amid a string of resounding booms, and they appeared to be quite evenly-matched.

Unbeknownst to the two of them, a massive hole with a radius of around 20 feet had been carved into an ordinary-looking giant tree close to 10 kilometers away from them.

Within the hole in the tree, there were three people seated inside in a cross-legged manner, appraising a mirror that was hovering in mid-air with rapt focus on their faces.

The back of the mirror was shimmering with silver light, while the mirror of the surface was displaying an extremely clear image; the image was none other than that of the battle between the Dark Beast and the Azure Night Python.

All of the scenes in the distance had been perfectly replicated in the mirror, except everything was countless times smaller than their actual size.

Among this trio, one of them was an azure-robed man, one was a woman with a white hood over her head, and the final being was a burly yellow-skinned man.

These were none other than Han Li, Liu Shui'er, and Shi Kun, who had finally gotten here after close to a month.

All three of them wore grim expressions as they stared at the mirror with intense unblinking eyes.

Close to an hour later, the Dark Beast in the image had split up into hundreds of black bats that finally wore the wounded Azure Night Python down until it died, then devoured its prey's beast core before departing in high spirits.

Liu Shui'er cast an incantation seal onto the mirror, and the image disappeared as she sighed, "What do you think of these Dark Beasts after witnessing one in action for yourselves?"

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"In a one-on-one battle, I can gain a huge advantage in just 10 breaths, and I'd be able to kill it in 30 breaths," Shi Kun replied with furrowed brows.

"Oh? Then what if three or four of these Dark Beasts, or even a dozen of them were to appear before you at once?" Liu Shui'er asked with a hint of a smile on her face.

"If they're all this powerful, then I can't guarantee victory against more than three of them, and if more than five of them were to swarm me at once, I'd have no chance of victory. If I were to encounter more than 10 of them at once, I'd immediately run for my life," Shi Kun admitted in a begrudging manner.

"That's the problem; from what I've heard, there are tens of thousands of Dark Beasts in the Dark Beast Forest, and their powers differ greatly. According to our records, the power displayed by that Dark Beast earlier is slightly inferior to that of the average power level of a mature Dark Beast. Otherwise, it wouldn't have taken so long to defeat that Azure Night Python. Above normal Dark Beasts, there are also two higher tiers of Dark Beasts, one of which is the Three-eyed Dark Beast. Aside from the fact that they're simply a lot more powerful than normal Dark Beasts, their third eyes can also release a strange type of light that can reduce living beings to rotten wood. The other type of Dark Beast is the Dark Beast Monarch. These Dark Beasts possess pure golden fur as opposed to black fur, and we don't have any information on how powerful they are. Apparently, one of our seniors who came into the Vast Glacial Realm before us once passed through the Dark Beast Forest, and he witnessed from afar a Dark Beast Monarch leading a pack of hundreds of mature Dark Beasts galloping through the forest," Liu Shui'er said in a grim voice.

"I've seen similar records as well. I would estimate that I could take care of a single one of those Three-eyed Dark Beasts, but I'm not sure if I'd be able to take on two at once. As for those golden Dark Beasts, they can lead packs of their kind, so they must be far more powerful than even Three-eyed Dark Beasts. In that case, it's most likely the case that we'd be no match for them even if the three of us were to combine our powers. However, seeing as they're beast monarchs, there shouldn't be all that many of them even in the entire Dark Beast Forest, so surely we won't be unlucky enough to encounter one," Han Li said in a slow voice.

"That's a valid point. We have no intention of bothering these Dark Beasts anyway; all we want to do is sneak through this forest, so we'll be doing our best to avoid them. It's a pity that we can't fly over this forest. Otherwise, it would only take us a few days to cross through it," Liu Shui'er sighed.

"It's alright, we can afford a slight delay like this. Besides, we have no other alternative anyway. If we were to try and fly over the forest, we'd quickly be surrounded by countless Dark Beasts at once," Han Li said with a wry smile.

"I'm naturally aware of that. According to our predecessors who have trekked through the Dark Beast Forest, Dark Beasts are severely weaker during the day than they are during the night, so the forest is much more heavily guarded during the day. Many Three-eyed Dark Beasts would even come out to patrol the forest during daylight hours. In contrast, fewer guards patrol the forest during the night and all of the high-grade Dark Beasts will return to their caves to rest and cultivate, but the Dark Beasts are a lot more powerful during that time," Liu Shui'er continued.

"In that case, we should travel through the night, then rest during the day. I thought it'd be the other way around!" Shi Kun was rather surprised to hear this.

"I also support what Fairy Liu is saying. Not only will there be more high-grade Dark Beasts patrolling the forest during the day, a lot of our concealment techniques will also be hampered greatly during the day, so it's very likely that we won't be able to escape the notice of those Three-eyed Dark Beasts. After all, most beasts with additional demonic eyes have abilities that can allow them to see through illusions and concealment techniques, so that'll certainly work against our favor. Regardless of how severely debilitated Dark Beasts are during the day, we'll still be in a dire situation if we get surrounded by 100 at once. As such, it's better to travel during the night," Han Li said after a brief pause.

"Hmm, that does indeed make a lot of sense. Alright then, we'll travel during the night as opposed to during daylight hours." Shi Kun seemed to have been convinced.

Liu Shui'er nodded before asking, "In that case, let's set off soon. The earlier we can get through the forest, the safer we'll be. By the way, do you two have any suitable concealment techniques?"

"Oh? From the sounds of it, do you perhaps possess a superior concealment technique that can help the two us?" Han Li was immediately able to read between the lines and glean the purpose behind Liu Shui'er's question.

"You really are a smart man, Brother Han. Prior to coming here, I borrowed three Thousand Transformation Faces from my master. With these treasures, we can transform into anything we want, and no one will be able to discover anything amiss unless they were to carefully inspect us with their spiritual sense. I know that the two of you must also have other brilliant concealment techniques, but these treasures are perfect for this situation. Even if we get discovered by other Dark Beasts, we'll be able to conceal ourselves with these treasures," Liu Shui'er explained with a smile as she flipped a hand over to produce three thin silver objects.

"Thousand Transformation Faces! These treasures are extremely renowned, and I've heard that only your master knows how to refine them. If you're willing to lend them to us, then that would naturally be fantastic!" Shi Kun was elated at the sight of the three thin treasures, and he immediately made a grabbing motion to draw one of them into his grasp before carefully appraising it.

Han Li hadn't stayed in Cloud City for a very long time, so it was the first time he'd heard of this treasure. However, it was quite apparent from Shi Kun's excited reaction that these were definitely no ordinary treasures.

Thus, he expressed his gratitude toward Liu Shui'er before also grabbing one of the treasures and inspecting it with a curious look on his face.

This so-called Thousand Transformation Face was as thin as a silk handkerchief, yet slightly warm to the touch. Even with Han Li's vast wealth of knowledge and experience, he was unable to identify what kind of material this treasure was refined from.

However, there were a few pea-sized silver runes of different sizes inscribed onto the surface of the treasure, and they immediately caught his eye.

After focusing his gaze on this silver runes, Han Li's expression changed ever-so-slightly, but his reaction still didn't escape the notice of Liu Shui'er.

A peculiar look flashed through her eyes as she asked, "Brother Han, have you seen this treasure before?"

Han Li's heart stirred slightly, but his expression had already returned to normal as he replied, "This is a treasure that can only be refined by Senior Cai, so of course I've never had the chance to see it before."

"Then what was your reaction just then?" Liu Shui'er wasn't willing to let the issue slide.

"Hehe, the material used for this treasure is very unique. I thought myself to be quite knowledgeable, but I don't have the slightest inkling what this material could step from, and I'm feeling rather embarrassed," Han Li explained with a nonchalant smile.

Liu Shui'er seemed to have believed Han Li's excuse, and she explained, "I see. I don't know the refinement method, but I've heard from Master that these treasures were refined through combining the skins of seven types of extremely rare spirit beasts, so it's no wonder that you can't identify the material used."

"Thank you for telling me this," Han Li replied as he feigned an expression of enlightenment.

At the same time, he was gently stroking the silver runes on the treasure while many thoughts surged through his mind.

The silver runes on this Thousand Transformation Face were none other than beveled silver text, and it was naturally very surprising to him to see this text here.

If this was a treasure that only Cai Liuying knew how to refine, did that mean that she also had an outer page of the Golden Jade Tome?

Just as he was thinking this, Liu Shui'er continued, "These treasures are quite extraordinary, but the transformations won't happen as soon as you put them on. If you want to transform into another living being, it would be best to obtain some of its blood, flesh, or skin first. If you could obtain the entire hide of a beast, the transformation would be absolutely perfect."

"It shouldn't be that hard to find complete beast hides; we'll just have to find a few Dark Beasts and kill them. Hehe, the one that we just saw would be perfect for this. In such a short time, it couldn't have gotten very far away," Shi Kun chuckled a ferocious look flashed through his eyes.

Immediately thereafter, yellow light flashed beneath his feet, and he slowly sunk into the ground.

Liu Shui'er's eyes flashed upon seeing this, but she didn't say anything to stop him in the end.

Thus, Shi Kun unleashed his earth movement technique, and vanished in the blink of an eye.

"There won't be any issues letting Brother Shi go on his own, will there?" Liu Shui'er asked in a low voice as she glanced at Han Li.

"Seeing as you didn't say anything to stop him, you must be of the opinion that everything should be fine, and I also think the same. We've already carefully assessed this area and ascertained that there are no other Dark Beasts within a radius of 50 kilometers. On top of that, Fellow Daoist Shi has the element of surprise on his side, so this should be an easy task for him," Han Li replied in a calm manner.

Liu Shui'er fell silent upon seeing this.

An hour later, yellow light flashed from the spot where Shi Kun had disappeared, and a humanoid figure emerged from the ground.

It was none other than Shi Kun himself.

As soon as he emerged, he smiled at Han Li and Liu Shui'er, then abruptly swept a sleeve through the air, upon which a black object flew out from within.

It was none other than a complete set of Dark Beast hide.

"Fellow Daoist Liu, do you think this beast hide is suitable for me to use?" Shi Kun asked in a proud manner.

After briefly appraising the sheet of beast hide, Liu Shui'er smiled, and replied, "It doesn't have any wounds on it at all! In that case, there would naturally be no issues. I'll teach both of you the mantra, and you can give it a try, Brother Shi."

After that, she tossed back the sheet of beast hide, then transmitted her voice to Han Li and Shi Kun, teaching them a profound mantra.

Han Li and the Shi Kun naturally listened with rapt focus and committed the mantra to memory.

Moments later, Liu Shui'er's voice transmission trailed off, and Shi Kun's eyes lit up as he tossed the beast hide in his hands into the air, following which he raised both hands at once.

The Thousand Transformation Face vanished into the beast hide as a ball of silver light, following which a series of silver runes appeared.

The entire sheet of Dark Beast hide then descended onto his body.

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Silver light flashed, and as soon as Shi Kun was encompassed within the sheet of beast hide, he transformed into a living Dark Beast.

He had the same black fur and identical sharp claws as those of the Dark Beast from before.

"This is incredible! I almost don't feel any different, yet I've completely transformed into another being!" Shi Kun inspected his front paws with amazement before bursting into laughter.

"If the Thousand Transformation Faces didn't have such abilities, I wouldn't have brought them out for you two to use," Liu Shui'er said with a smile.

"Thank you, Fellow Daoist Liu. With these treasures, all of us will have flawless disguises for the journey up ahead," the Dark Beast said with an elated expression.

After witnessing Shi Kun's transformation, Han Li also became quite confident in these treasures, and after expressing his gratitude to Liu Shui'er again, he suggested, "Fairy Liu and I still don't have beast hides at the moment, but it won't be good to delay any further. Why don't we set off, and if we encounter any Dark Beast stragglers, we can pick them off along the way."

"My thoughts exactly Brother Han. We're on a tight schedule, so it's naturally best not to waste any time," Liu Shui'er immediately agreed.

Shi Kun didn't have any objections to this either, so the three of them crept silently out of the hold in the tree and into the night.

After that, Shi Kun expelled a yellow cloud from his mouth, and his body instantly transformed into a burst of faint yellow Qi.

The Dark Beast Forest had extremely low visibility to begin with at night, and after unleashing this technique, it would be impossible for anyone to discover Shi Kun's presence unless they were to look carefully at him from within 100 feet away.

Meanwhile, Liu Shui'er removed a jade-pendant-like treasure from around her waist, and she tossed it into the air, upon which it transformed into a pristine white mouse that was around 10 feet in length.

Her body then swayed, and she drifted onto the mouse's back, following which faint white light began to emanate from its body, enshrouding both itself and Liu Shui'er within.

The two gradually turned transparent in the white light, transforming into a barely visible transparent shadow in the end.

As for Han Li, the measures he took were even simpler.

After the latest refinement, his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords had become pure wood-attribute treasures, and in a forest with such abundant wood-attribute spiritual Qi, it was extremely easy for him to conceal himself with his swords.

As such, he raised an arm, and a small azure sword shot forth out of his sleeve, then transformed into a streak of azure light that was several tens of feet in length before sweeping toward his body.

Moments later, a barely visible streak of azure light shot forth through the air.

Thus, the three of them officially began their journey into the Dark Beast Forest in a discreet and stealthy manner.

Several days later, a thin Dark Beast was slowly treading over a thick bed of leaves and branches as it traversed through the forest in a graceful manner.

All of a sudden, a burst of blue light flew toward it from a nearby tree, then swept up its entire body.

The female Dark Beast was naturally quite alarmed, and it let loose a sharp cry as it sent several black claw projections hurtling toward the blue light.

However, the blue light merely swirled before transforming into a massive ball of light that completely encapsulated the female Dark Beast's body.

As such, the sharp cries escaping from its mouth became completely inaudible to those outside the ball of light, and its sharp claws were also only able to send a few ripples surging through the blue light without actually being able to penetrate through it.

At this moment, white light flashed from the massive tree, and a gorgeous figure emerged from within.

It was none other than Liu Shui'er.

She was making a hand seal with one hand while carrying a fist-sized blue crystal ball in her other hand, and she was chanting something at the same time.

A peculiar scene then unfolded.

The blue ball of light slowly spread in all directions at her behest, forming a blue light barrier that covered a full acre in mere moments.

After that, she stowed away the blue crystal ball in her hand, following her body swayed, and she vanished into the light barrier as a white shadow.

The Dark Beast within the light barrier immediately pounced toward her without any hesitation, and along the way, it manifested three more identical black shadows.

However, Liu Shui'er remained completely unflustered as she opened her mouth to expel a clump of thin blue threads, which dispersed to form a blue net of light that surged toward the Dark Beast and its projections.

The Dark Beast also opened its mouth to blast forth a pillar of black light upon seeing this, then slashed its claws through the air in a menacing manner, conjuring up countless claw projections that hurtled directly toward the massive blue net.

A string of resounding booms rang out as black and blue light intertwined with one another amid a series of explosions.

However, the loud commotion and violent spiritual Qi fluctuations were all greatly buffered by the light barrier, making it almost impossible to hear the battle from outside.

Thus, Liu Shui'er and the Dark Beast engaged in battle.

Outside the blue light barrier, azure light and yellow Qi flashed, following which Han Li and Shi Kun emerged in unison.

Both of them were staring at the blue light barrier with different expressions on their faces.

"Hehe, Fellow Daoist Liu sure is picky; refusing to go with any target other than a female Dark Beast." Shi Kun chuckled with a shake of his head.

"I'm sure she has her considerations," Han Li replied in a calm manner.

"As a woman, it makes sense that Fellow Daoist Liu is averse to adopting the form of a male Dark Beast, but I'm quite curious about why you decided against killing the Dark Beast that we encountered two days ago," Shi Kun continued as a peculiar look appeared in his eyes.

"That Dark Beast was already riddled with wounds, so even if I were to secure its hide, it wouldn't look right after I transform into it, so I decided to wait for the next one we encounter instead," Han Li explained in an indifferent voice.

"I see. I thought you let it go out of the kindness of your heart after seeing the cubs that were traveling with that wounded Dark Beast. But then again, cultivators like us are beyond such shallow thoughts," Shi Kun said in a nonchalant manner.

Han Li merely smiled and offered no response to this.

Just as the two of them were chatting with one another, a dull thump suddenly rang out from within the blue light barrier, following which the entire barrier tremored slightly, but immediately settled again.

Han Li was slightly startled by this, as was Shi Kun.

All of a sudden, the blue light barrier suddenly shattered, then vanished as specks of spiritual light.

At the very center of the light barrier stood Liu Shui'er, and beside her lay the female Dark Beast in a completely motionless manner. Its fur was rather wet, but there was not a single wound on its body.

Han Li only had to scan this beast with his spiritual sense to know that it was definitely already dead.

"Nicely done! I didn't think your water-attribute abilities would be so potent, Fellow Daoist Liu; you took care of that beast even faster than I slew mine a few days ago," Shi Kun praised as he clicked his tongue with wonder.

Liu Shui'er raised a hand to draw the Dark Beast into her grasp, then smiled as she replied, "There's no need to flatter me, Brother Shi; Fellow Daoist Han and I have both witnessed the power of your body, and my little tricks certainly can't compare with your immense strength."

"Haha, if your abilities are nothing more than little tricks, then my pitiful abilities are even less than that. Fellow Daoist Han, both Fairy Liu and myself have obtained beast hides, so you're the only one left now. The deeper we go into this forest, the greater the probability that we'll encounter packs of Dark Beasts, so you need to think about how to proceed from here," Shi Kun said to Han Li with a meaningful look on his face.

"Rest assured, Brother Shi, I definitely won't be playing games with my life on the line," Han Li replied with a faint smile.

Three days later, beside a small creek in the Dark Beast Forest, a Dark Beast that was around 30% larger than the average Dark Beast had been enshrouded under an azure light barrier.

Han Li hovered in the air above with his eyes closed, making a series of hand seals that were causing the light barrier to fluctuate in brightness erratically.

Both Liu Shui'er and Shi Kun stood beside the barrier, and the two of them were quite stunned by what they were seeing.

Not only was the azure light barrier so dense that it felt as if it were a substantial structure that completely impeded their vision, even their spiritual sense was repelled when they tried to detect what was happening within the barrier.

This was none other than the Spring Dawn Sword Formation that Han Li had set up.

All of a sudden, Han Li raised an eyebrow as he hovered in mid-air, and he ceased making hand seals. He then swept a sleeve downward, and uttered the word "withdraw".

The azure light barrier immediately dissipated, reverting back to several tens of azure flying swords, each of which was several feet in length.

Han Li made a grabbing motion, and all of the flying swords shrank down to several inches in size amid a flash of azure light. They hurtled directly toward him before quickly vanishing into his body.

At this point, the massive Dark Beast below the light barrier was already dead, and it was sprawled onto the ground with blood flowing from all seven of its orifices.

Liu Shui'er and Shi Kun couldn't help but exchange a glance upon seeing this, and they could see their own wariness mirrored in each other's eyes.

Han Li had naturally also caught sight of what they were doing, but he merely descended slowly and landed beside the Dark Beast carcass.

"Fellow Daoists, with this Dark Beast hide, we can now venture deep into the forest without taking as many precautionary measures as before," Han Li said with a smile.

"Of course, it's just that I didn't think that your most powerful ability would be a legendary sword formation, Brother Han. The two of us couldn't see anything that was happening inside, but just the fact that it was able to block our spiritual sense indicates that it's quite a profound formation," Liu Shui'er said with a wry smile.

"Indeed. You took slightly longer than the two of us to kill your prey as you had to lure it into the sword formation before killing it, but no sound or fluctuations escaped during the process whatsoever, and that further exemplifies how incredible this sword formation is. With this ability up your sleeve, I doubt you'd encounter many opponents below the holy race that would be able to best you," Shi Kun also praised in a heartfelt manner.

"Hehe, there's no need to flatter me, Fellow Daoists. My Spring Dawn Sword Formation does indeed possess some power, but I'm sure the two of you haven't even begun to show the extent your powers. Otherwise, the two seniors wouldn't have entrusted you two with such an important task. In the face of your powers, my sword formation is nothing to boast about," Han Li chuckled nonchalantly.

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Shi Kun faltered slightly before bursting into laughter as he said, "I'm sure your powers aren't inferior to ours, Fellow Daoist Han. In any case, we should stop praising one another and discuss the more important matters at hand. If we continue onward for a day or two, we'll truly be entering the depths of the Dark Beast Forest, which is where most of the Dark Beasts reside. If we want to pass through this area, we have to be on high alert the entire time."

"When passing through the central region of the forest, make sure you don't try to kill any straggling Dark Beasts. Our restrictions will be able to fool normal Dark Beasts, but high-grade Three-eyed Dark Beasts will immediately sense that something is amiss as soon as we try to use our powers. On top of that, we won't be able to release our spiritual sense over large areas deep in the forest, so if a battle were to break out, we'd be in a lot of danger," Liu Shui'er said in a grim voice.

"Even if we're forced into a battle, we can't delay for so long like we're doing now. We have to attack all at once to try and kill the enemy on the spot in an instant; only then will we be minimizing the risk of blowing our covers," Shi Kun added in a solemn manner.

"Indeed. If we were to come up against a normal Dark Beast, it shouldn't be too difficult for the three of us to kill it in an instant. However, I can't say the same if we were to encounter high-grade Dark Beasts," Han Li said as he stroked his chin.

"If we really do get targeted by a high-grade Dark Beast, then that's when our Divine Essencefused Light combination technique would come in useful," Liu Shui'er reminded with a smile.

"I almost forgot about that secret technique! With that up our sleeves, we won't have to fear even high-grade Dark Beasts as long as we don't encounter too many of them," Shi Kun chuckled as he rubbed his hands together with glee.

"However, that ability has to only be used as a last resort. If we were to unleash it, it would definitely cause a massive commotion that would result in a large number of high-grade Dark Beasts pursuing us at once," Han Li said with a concerned shake of his head.

"Rest assured, Brother Shi and I are well aware of that. Seeing as you've also obtained a Dark Beast hide, let's all transform and set off. It would be best if we were to open up some distance between one another. Otherwise, it would be rather eye-catching if we were to travel as a group of three," Liu Shui'er suggested.

"That's a valid point, Fairy Liu. In that case, I'll be going on ahead first," Shi Kun said with a quick nod.

He then made a hand seal, and that black beast hide abruptly appeared over his body. A ball of silver light then shot forth from within his sleeve before disappearing into the beast hide in a flash.

Thus, he transformed into a Dark Beast again, and his four paws dug into the ground, propelling him through the forest like an arrow.

Han Li and Liu Shui'er also immediately followed suit upon seeing this, transforming into a pair of Dark Beasts that set off in hot pursuit.

Along the way, the three of them activated their concealment treasures to hide themselves once again.

Thus, it would be very difficult to discover the three of them, especially in the Dark Beast Forest, which had very low visibility during the night.

After that, Han Li's trio proceeded cautiously onward, skirting around an area as soon as they discovered any powerful beasts there, trying to minimize their contact with other creatures in the forest.

During the first few days, they didn't encounter Dark Beasts on too many occasions, but they rarely ever appeared on their own, and most of them traveled in groups of two or three.

After about a week or so, they had traveled to the true central region of the forest, and Dark Beasts were beginning to appear in groups of five or six, and even packs that numbered in excess of 10.

This was rather alarming to Han Li's trio, and they began to proceed with even greater caution.

Thankfully, they were able to rely on their profound movement techniques and superior magic power to fool these Dark Beasts, and no mishaps occurred.

Perhaps they were simply lucky or something was happening within the Dark Beast Forest. In any case, they didn't even encounter a single high-grade Three-eyed Dark Beast on the way here, thereby allowing them to travel smoothly all the way into the very center of the Dark Beast Forest.

If things were to continue like this for the next three to four days, they would've passed through the most dangerous region of the Dark Beast Forest at that point, and they'd be able to heave a sigh of relief.

However, at present, Han Li and the others were all quite tense, and they wore rather grim expressions on their faces.

All three of them were vastly knowledgeable and experienced beings, and even though they were quite glad that they hadn't encountered any high-grade Dark Beasts in the forest, their past experiences told them that this was not necessarily a good thing.

As they continued to forge on ahead, even the number of normal Dark Beasts they encountered dwindled significantly. During the next two days, they only encountered a dozen or so Dark Beasts during their travels.

This was quite alarming to Han Li's trio, and they became even warier of the situation.

Han Li was quickly traveling through the forest in a wraith-like manner, passing through all obstacles like giant trees in his path in a completely soundless manner as an azure shadow.

This kind of movement technique naturally allowed him to travel extremely quickly.

However, his brows were tightly furrowed, and faint blue light was flashing within his eyes as he constantly surveyed his surroundings.

This was the central region of the forest, so he naturally didn't dare to release his spiritual sense. As such, he could only use his Brightsight Spirit Eyes to detect Dark Beasts and take measures to avoid them in advance.

He didn't know what kind of methods Liu Shui'er and Shi Kun were employing, but they were reacting just as quickly as he was whenever Dark Beasts appeared up ahead.

This came as quite a surprise to Han Li. Could it be that they'd also cultivated some kind of profound sensory ability or were using treasures to accomplish this?

In any case, Han Li's appraisal of their powers was increased once again upon seeing this.

With that in mind, Han Li inspected his surrounding area, and with his spirit eye ability, he was able to tell that Liu Shui'er and Shi Kun were over 1,000 feet away on either side of him.

Both of them were also traveling very quickly through the forest, and after ascertaining that they'd encountered no issues, Han Li's expression eased slightly as he withdrew his gaze again.

However, right at this moment, a sudden turn of events abruptly unfolded!

A golden shadow suddenly shot forth out of the darkness right ahead of them.

After just a single flash, it covered a distance over several hundred feet, taking it over to Shi Kun before it crashed headfirst into his body.

Shi Kun was naturally extremely alarmed by this, but he'd been caught completely off guard, and simply had no time to evade.

As such, he had no choice but to conjure up a protective barrier of spiritual Qi amid a flash of bright yellow light.

An earth-shattering boom rang out, and golden and yellow light intertwined before the golden shadow stumbled backward a few steps, but then immediately righted itself.

In contrast, the Dark Beast that Shi Kun had transformed into was sent flying like a cannonball, crashing into a large tree several hundred feet away with vicious force. Only after the entire tree had snapped in half from the force of the impact did he finally manage to arrest his momentum.

However, he continued to lay on the ground with an agonized expression on his face, looking as if he were unable to get up.

Han Li and Liu Shui'er were both quite stunned to see this.

They had personally witnessed just how powerful Shi Kun's body was, yet even he had been reduced to such a sorry state after being rammed into by that golden shadow. Just how terrifyingly powerful did that golden shadow have to be to accomplish this?

Blue light flashed through Han Li's eyes, and he immediately managed to identify what the golden shadow was, upon which he was instantly given a massive fright!

This was a Dark Beast that was around 10 feet in length with shimmering golden fur and inky-black eyes.

It was a legendary Dark Beast Monarch!

No way! Prior to setting off, he'd said that there was no way they'd be unlucky enough to encounter a Dark Beast Monarch, yet they'd somehow managed to encounter one before they'd even seen a Three-eyed Dark Beast. These Dark Beast Monarchs were the most fearsome beings in this forest, and even though there were no records detailing how powerful they were, they had to at least possess powers comparable to holy race beings.

Han Li's heart sank as he came to an abrupt halt, then fixed an intense unblinking gaze onto the golden Dark Beast.

At the same time, he immediately forged a spiritual connection with several treasures within his body, getting ready to unleash them at a moment's notice.

Meanwhile, Liu Shui'er had also stopped on a thick tree branch, appraising the golden Dark Beast with a grave expression on her face.

The Dark Beast Monarch was clearly also rather disoriented from crashing into Shi Kun out of the blue, and after shaking its head from side to side, a vicious light flashed through its eyes as it fixed its gaze on Shi Kun, who was still unable to get up.

Sharp claw projections immediately appeared on the front ends of its paws, and it seemed to be preparing to attack Shi Kun.

Both Han Li and Liu Shui'er's hearts jolted upon seeing this, and they were contemplating whether to step in or not.

It was quite clear that the Dark Beast Monarch hadn't discovered the two of them yet, so if they were to sneak away now, perhaps they'd be able to escape unscathed. Otherwise, even if the three of them could just barely hold off this Dark Beast Monarch, as soon as it summoned more of its brethren to the scene, they'd definitely be plunged into life-threatening danger.

However, if Shi Kun were to die, there'd be no way for them to access the restricted ruins, so their mission would end in failure before it had even begun.

If they were to fail to complete the mission and allow Shi Kun to perish in the Dark Beast Forest, they would definitely be punished by Cai Liuying and Duan Tianren, even if they could return from the Vast Glacial Realm alive.

However, even though this was quite a troublesome prospect, it was something for him to worry about in the future. For now, his top priority was naturally to save himself.

Thus, Han Li made his decision in the blink of an eye before quickly turning to glance at Liu Shui'er.

However, he discovered that the Dark Beast that Liu Shui'er had turned into was arching its back, and faint white light was shimmering from its body, looking as if it were going to rush to Shi Kun's aid without any hesitation.

This came as quite a surprise to Han Li, and a contemplative look appeared in his eyes.

However, he had no intention of risking his life with her. As such, after taking a deep breath, he planned to hurtle back in retreat.

However, the events that unfolded next had him completely flabbergasted.

The golden Dark Beast had a ferocious look in its eyes, and it was clearly just about to attack. However, its ears suddenly twitched, following which the vicious look on its face transformed into one of shock and fury.

It then let loose a low snarl, and shot forth as a golden shadow again, disappearing into the forest after just a few flashes.

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