After flying a circle around his body, the small swords merged into a huge green sword. With a blur, Han Li and Crooked Soul arrived on the huge sword. It then flashed with green radiance and cut through the sky as an emerald streak of light that was nearly forty meters long, increasing their speed by nearly fifty percent.
After the time it took to make a cup of tea, Han Li had caught up to the eccentric. After seeing the black light that was singularly focused on flying, Han Li waved his arm with an icy expression. Two small emerald swords shot towards it along with Crooked Soul’s Immemorial Bowl.
The escaping eccentric had clearly seen that his relentless pursuers had released their magic treasures towards him. He immediately responded by throwing a skull towards them. Afterwards, the eccentric continued flying without looking back.
According to the eccentric’s thoughts, the skull should be able to buy him some precious time at the very least.
Han Li’s expression darkened, and he silently cast an incantation gesture. His two flying swords then flashed with green light and turned into four swordlights which were indistinguishable from one another. Two of these swordlights and the immemorial bowl flew straight towards the skull while the other two swordlights combined to form a foot-long flying sword. It rushed past the skull and shot towards the back of the eccentric without a sound.
The flying sword became much faster after combining together and arrived behind the eccentric in the blink of an eye.
However, the eccentric felt that something was amiss and turned his head, discovering an emerald streak of light that was only fifteen meters away from him.
The eccentric’s face turned deathly pale. Responding quickly to the emergency, he opened his mouth and spewed a puff of black Qi towards the flying sword. Afterwards, he hastily flew away, wanting to escape.
Under Han Li’s command, the flying sword continued straight through the black Qi without any hesitation. As it approached, an arc of faint golden lightning struck the black Qi and thoroughly blew it away, leaving the flying sword completely unobstructed.
Then with a flash of green light, the emerald flying sword pierced through the eccentric.
The eccentric looked down at the flying sword in his chest with an expression of complete disbelief. Without the chance to say a single word, he was struck with faint golden lightning and turned to ash.
Han Li hastily approached. After blurring a few times, he reappeared with three items in his hands and focused his attention on them. Apart from the flower basket ancient treasure, there was also a storage pouch and a scroll painting sparkling with red light. From painting's stealthily contained Spiritual Qi, even if it wasn’t an ancient treasure, it was still undoubtedly an unordinary magic treasure.
Delighted, Han Li gently unrolled the scroll and was soon stunned.
After staring at the scroll for a long while, Han Li slowly rolled it back up and wore a contemplative expression. Forcefully suppressing the suspicions he had in mind, Han Li flew towards the skull in silence.
Now lacking a master, the black skull floated in the air without movement. Although it still retained a trace of its evil Qi, it now completely lacked any trace of its former intelligence.
After taking a look, Han Li slightly frowned. In truth, this was the first time he had seen an item like this. He faintly felt that this item definitely had a bad history, but he still felt reluctant to just let it go. After a moment of hesitation, he decided to store it in a jade box.
After circling around the area once more, Han Li flew back with Crooked Soul. On the way, he encountered Jin Qing and the others who on their way to assist him.
Having seen Han Li and Crooked Soul return completely unharmed, they crowded around him in pleasant surprise.
“Fellow Daoist Han, what happened to that eccentric? Did he escape?” Jin Qing couldn’t help but ask.
“He died by my hand!” Han Li calmly said.
“He’s dead? That’s great. From his profuse, evil Qi, we would have definitely found ourselves hopelessly entangled if he decided to pursue us in the future. That would’ve proved to be extremely troublesome.” Jin Qing replied with a large breath of relief.
With slightly changed expressions, the nearby Hu Yue and cultivator Jian looked at Han Li with gazes of involuntary respect.
After all, one’s capability defined one’s status in the cultivation world.
Afterwards, the party returned to their original location where Fairy Shi was worriedly waiting for them.
The group gathered together once more. After some discussion, Han Li felt that it would be best to quickly break through the formation in order to prevent any further unexpected incidents from occurring.
Thus, the group once again got into formation. After refocusing his heart, Han Li placed down the formation flags and plates.
The destruction of the last restriction was exceptionally smooth. After the scarlet light barrier was destroyed, the “Winged Fiends” contained within were cleanly eliminated by their water attribute magic tools.
The party revealed joy and soon turned their gazes towards the strange, exposed stone pillar at the center.
With no restrictions in the way, the group was clearly able to see the stone pillar with their spiritual sense and eyesight.
The stone pillar’s talisman markings were extremely strange. The pillar was covered in eight huge ancient talisman scripts that spiralled around it from top to bottom along with countless strange stripes. In addition, the stone pillar was embedded with extremely rare Yin-Yang Jade in an even distribution. They occasionally flashed with dim black and white lights.
After looking at this for some time, they looked at each other in confusion and sunk into contemplation, bitterly attempting to recall any relatable information.
“Spirit Sealing Pillar!” After a short moment, the weakest among them, Shi Die, suddenly shouted out the name of the stone pillar in alarm.
The others were stunned upon hearing this, but they soon looked at each other in bewilderment.
“Fairy Shi, are you certain? Is this really a Spirit Sealing Pillar?” Hu Yue couldn’t help but ask with doubt.
“Absolutely! I possess a book of ancient formation spells that particularly mentions the Spirit Sealing Pillar. From its appearance and those talisman markings, it is exactly as was described in the book. Don’t be fooled into believing it to be some common stone pillar. It was forged from over ten extremely precious tool refinement materials. This lone pillar is worth about six thousand spirit stones.” Shi Die gazed at this pillar with excitement.
Chapter 422: Sevenglow Lotus
The Spirit Sealing Pillar was actually a huge magic tool used by ancient cultivators to seal the nearby Spiritual Qi and isolate it from the outside the world. This rarely seen magic tool was typically used in one of two ways.
One purpose was to seal extremely rare spirit medicines and spirit herbs, preventing their spiritual nature from weakening due to outside exposure. Another purpose was to suppress particularly formidable ghost spirits or devils and prevent them from escaping. Regardless of which purpose this particular Spirit Sealing Pillar served, its value would prove to be extremely significant to Han Li and company.
Spirit medicines have their obvious uses, but if the Spirit Sealing Pillar was suppressing devils, they would prove to be optimal materials for increasing the strength of one’s magic treasure by subduing and containing them within their magic treasures.
However, they clearly understood that if the Spirit Seal Pillar was used to seal a spirit or a devil it was guaranteed to be difficult for them to subdue it after it was released. There was even a chance that it would cause backlash instead.
Although everyone looked at each other with pleasant surprise, nobody brashly suggested immediately toppling the pillar to see what was underneath.
After a long while of silence, Jin Qing bitterly laughed and muttered, “This is quite the conundrum! But since we’ve spent quite a bit of effort, nobody wi
shes to turn back, yes?”
“If you want to leave, then leave! I will be staying here! Don’t say that there might not be devils within. We must be ready to attempt to subdue whatever is inside.” Cultivator Jian coldly spoke with his hands behind his back.
Jin Qing smiled in response and turned towards Hu Yue and asked, “How about you, Fellow Daoist Hu?”
After muttering to himself for a moment, Hu Yue gave a resolute answer, “Fellow Daoist, you should know that because us rogue cultivators are unwilling to be restricted by others, our freedom comes at the cost of poverty. We must seize every opportunity we are given!”
Jin Qing didn’t reveal any surprise and turned his gaze to Han Li.
With a raised brow, Han Li indifferently said, “I am indifferent. If a majority wishes to see what is underneath, I will stay as well.” Since he now had seventy-two Bamboo Azurecloud Swords refined from Gold Lightning Bamboo, he had nothing to fear from demons and ghosts.
“Don’t bother asking me. Although I am only a Foundation Establishment cultivator, my father fortuitously gave me a devil repelling magic treasure. Even if I lack the strength to protect myself, no harm will come to me.” Without waiting for Jin Qing to ask her, Shi Die took the initiative to answer after tilting her head.
“Alright! Since everyone is unwilling to return empty handed, let’s push the pillar over. Even so, please be careful!” Jin Qing lightly sighed and spoke with a cautious expression.
“Hehe! There is no need for Fellow Daoist Jin’s warning as nobody here is willing to treat their lives lightly. But still, let’s get the ugly matters out of the way first. If any devils or ghosts appear, then the subduer will have the right of ownership. Fighting over them is forbidden.” Cultivator Jian slowly spoke with a strange glint flashing from his eyes.
“That is obvious. It is only natural to yield in accordance to skill, considering the bounty’s nature,” Jin Qing spoke in agreement.
The others didn’t have any objections.
When cultivator Jian saw this, his spirit was roused, and he revealed a trace of joy.
Shi Die shot him a sideways glance and mysteriously smiled, asking, “Could it be that fellow Daoist has a special method to subdue devils? Is that why you’re so confident?”
“That’s... I won’t conceal this from you all. My cultivation art has a divine ability specialized in dealing with ghosts and devils. I had originally believed it wouldn’t be of much use, and I didn’t expect that I would be able to finally make use of it.” After some slight hesitation, cultivator Jian nodded and gave a straightforward explanation.
“The skulls of the wicked eccentric that Han Li had exterminated seemed to be refined from demons. It seemed that Fellow Daoist Jian had quite a bit of trouble with them?” Shi Die spoke with doubt.
“Sigh, it seems my poor performance has caused doubt. My divine ability requires prior preparation in order to be utilized. That wicked eccentric had caught me unprepared, and as a result, I made for a sorry sight.” Cultivator Jian shook his head and explained with slight embarrassment.
Shi Die nodded and turned her gaze back towards the Spirit Sealing Pillar.
“Since everyone is unwilling to give up, let’s start! It is a bit troublesome to overthrow a Spirit Sealing Pillar as it can only be released after turning it several times with great force.” Shi Die excitedly explained.
When the others heard this, they narrowed their eyes. Although they were cultivators, they didn’t actually possess much physical strength. Even with immense strength talismans, the group wouldn’t be able to physically shift such a huge stone pillar.
Han Li frowned and inwardly sent out a command.
As Crooked Soul walked towards the stone pillar, he said in a deep voice, “Let me do it. I have quite a bit of strength.”
Hu Yue and the others revealed slight amazement. After all, Crooked Soul had yet to speak since arriving here, but now suddenly he took the initiative to solve this matter.
“Then we will have to trouble Fellow Daoist Crooked Soul!” Shi Die said with curiosity.
Crooked Soul continued to walk towards the stone pillar as if he hadn’t heard her. His body first flashed with yellow light before he placed an immense strength talisman on his body. Afterwards, he rolled up his sleeves, took a deep breath, and clasped the stone pillar in his arms.
The ten meter tall stone pillar released a rumbling noise and started to turn bit by bit, much to the delight of the others.
Crooked Soul’s thick, taut arms were completely exposed and shined faintly of red light. After the stone pillar had been turned three times, he used all of his strength to push the pillar to the side before suddenly moving away.
The stone pillar fell to the side with a series of booms, causing the ground to tremble for a moment. From the deep groove it left behind when landing, it was clear that the stone pillar was extremely heavy.
However, the others didn’t pay any attention to the stone pillar, and instead focused their attention on the large hole left behind from its collapse.
The hole was pitch-black and from it blew a cold wind, but it also had a flight of small white stairs that led downward.
“Let’s go!” After looking at the hole for a moment, cultivator Jian decided to take the lead.
After some hesitation, the others followed after him. Now that they’ve made it this far, no one was willing to turn tail.
Han Li stood in his original spot with a single hand grasping his chin with a contemplative expression as he watched the other cultivators climb down the stairs with barely concealed excitement.
He then took out the scroll painting with the sparkling red light and fiddled with it.
He pondered for a moment while he looked at it before putting it away and climbing down the stairs. Crooked Soul closely followed after him.
The tunnel was rather deep. After a quarter hour, Han Li finally reached the bottom.
Their eyes brightened upon seeing a large hall that spanned over seventy meters appear before them. The hall’s roof was embedded with fist-sized luminescent pearls causing the hall to shine with milky-white light. As the walls were sparkling with bits of light, this exceptionally beautiful sight appeared to be caused by magic techniques.
In addition, there were two semi-circle doors to the side of the hall’s entrance that led to an unknown location.
Hu Yue and the others stood motionlessly at the center of the hall. They were all staring in the same direction and occasionally whispered to each other as if they were studying something.
Han Li walked towards them in large strides with great curiosity.
“What’s that?” Han Li revealed astonishment after catching sight of what they were staring at.
There was a flawlessly white skeleton that was reclined at the side of a small pond. An emerald-green, foot-long arrow penetrated its skull and nailed it to the ground, appearing quite strange.
But that had only caught their initial gaze. Afterwards, their focus had been excitedly drawn towards the three-colored lotus floating at the center of the pond’s surface.
Although the colorful lotus had yet to bloom and was still just a bud, it was the size of a bowl and glowed with a tri-colored radiance of azure, red, and yellow.
But what was most inconceivable about it was the exquisite rainbow that appeared several inches above it. Its glistening light was extremely entrancing.
Additionally, the pond water wasn’t ordinary water; it was a dense white paste that strongly emitted a strange fragrance.
“A Sevenglow Lotus! It has to be. I thought that this only existed in legend. That water... is it the legendary thousand year stone milk?” Hu Yue muttered to himself with widened eyes.
“No wonder there were so many formation spell restrictions placed down along with the Spirit Sealing Pillar. With these two items, setting down another dozen layers of restrictions wouldn’t be excessive.” Shi Die stated while mesmerized by the colorful lotus.
Jin Qing
woke from his surprise and turned to look at the skeleton. He bafflingly asked, “But what about this skeleton? Could it have been the cave residence’s master?”
“Why does it matter? We’ve struck it rich! Although this Sevenglow Lotus only shines with three colors, it will still sell for an exorbitant price at auction.” Cultivator Jian directly changed the subject with greed filling his eyes.
Chapter 423: Extreme Poison
Han Li’s calm voice sounded out from behind the other cultivators, “Is this Sevenglow Lotus very famous? Does it have any particular uses?”
Upon hearing him, cultivator Jian and the others sobered up and felt their hearts tremble. They unnaturally turned their gazes to Han Li.
They had all witnessed the power of his Gold Devouring Beetles while they were fighting together, and now they feared that they wouldn’t prove to be his match. Now that such a precious item had appeared, they unconsciously felt unease.
Even Jin Qing, who had implored him to come here, revealed a trace of unease.
Upon seeing these people’s expressions, Han Li was able to roughly tell what they were thinking. A wry smile flashed through his eyes.
However, he quickly concealed this and asked with an unknowing expression, “The name of this Sevenglow Lotus is quite peculiar! I’ve read through quite a few records, but I haven’t the slightest idea what it is.”
The other cultivators looked at each other. Hu Yue let out a dry cough before giving Han Li an explanation with a smile, “It seems that Fellow Daoist Han has spent most of his time in secluded cultivation and rarely deals with external matters. The name of this Sevenglow Lotus won’t be found in Spirit Herb Records as its name is only passed down through oral legends. It is said that it would be able to bring mortals back to life and can regrow the flesh from just bones. When cultivators take it, it is said to be able to raise one’s cultivation by an entire grade. This is an immortal item from legends!”
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 230