What other island could possibly be more secretive and to his liking than this one?
The small spirit vein was located on the island’s five-kilometer-long mountain range with a few sparse peaks, the tallest peak reaching a hundred twenty meters high. Being so small, Han Li didn’t have the option for an expansive cave residence. Hence, he merely looked for a small valley at the bottom of the mountain range and started to tunnel through the stone.
With Han Li’s current cultivation, it was practically effortless for him to carve out a cave residence similar to his previous one. After a few short days, he managed to finish carving out the general outline of his new residence.
Han Li was disinterested in carving out the finer details of his cave residence. Instead, he first set down a few formation tools that he had personally refined, covering both his cave residence and the mountain range in a spell restriction.
At a distance, the mountain range could no longer be seen, and was instead replaced by a verdant forest. The illusory forest seamlessly bordered a nearby forest without the slightest flaw.
From above, Han Li carefully examined the mountain range with chin in hand and was left feeling somewhat uneasy. If a high grade cultivator happened to pass through the mist like he had, this restriction wouldn’t be enough to fool them.
After muttering to himself, an idea suddenly came to mind.
Han Li directly flew back to his new cave residence and quickly inspected the materials he had on hand before starting to refine some items in a secret room.
Seven days later, Han Li emerged once more from his cave residence with a dozen sets of similar formation tools.
These sets of formation flags and formation plates were extremely crude, and by no means impressive. But after Han Li placed them at various areas throughout the small island, streams of mist began to wildly emerge from each of the formations. Soon, the new expanse of mist merged together with the existing mist of sea water to completely envelop the island, hiding it entirely from view. In this manner, any cultivators passing by would find it difficult to spot the island unless they were flying at a low altitude.
After examining it from every angle, Han Li finally felt at ease. Although he had spent no small number of spirit stones to activate so many formations, he didn’t care in the least. He was more than willing to bankrupt himself to avoid any potential disasters.
Han Li then returned to his cave residence with the utmost speed before hammering out some of the finer details of his cave residence such as his insect room, herb garden, and so on.
Two days later, Han Li was sitting inside a stone room with a solemn expression. He was immersing his spiritual sense into the yellow jade slip that Gu Yu had given to him, carefully sifting through its content.
With a twitch of his face, he extracted his spiritual sense from the jade slip and entered a state of deep contemplation.
A moment later, he stood up and strolled around the stone room several times before wearing a heavier expression.
He then clutched his storage pouch and took out a white jade box. Han Li gazed at it for a moment before slowly opening the box to reveal a few small, rainbow-colored beads.
Chapter 518: Flame Mirage Moth
Han Li nimbly grabbed one of the beads within the box and held it between his fingers close to his eye. After staring at it for a moment, Han Li slowly closed his eyes and reviewed the image of what he had seen in the jade slip.
The image was of a fist-sized pearl that emitted rainbow light and had over ten smaller beads floating around it. Those smaller pearls appeared exactly the same as the one currently in his hand. As for the large rainbow pearl, it was the Heavenmend Pill that he had seen shooting out of the Heavenvoid Cauldron. This strange image had appeared in the jade slip without the slightest description, provoking an air of mystery.
When Han Li had swept his mind past the image in the jade slip he had acquired from Gu Yu, he had been astonished. It was for that reason he had decided to add on a treasure talisman as payment for the jade slip. Were it not for this, he would’ve only given Gu Yu the medicine pills at most.
The jade slip possessed many bizarre images, but each of them lacked any kind of description. There were pictures of magic tools and treasures, as well as many demon beasts and ghostly monstrosities that Han Li had never seen before. After seeing the picture of the Heavenmend Pill among them, he felt that these images must be extremely significant.
Han Li carefully committed these pictures to memory and would treat them with great importance should he see them in the future.
However, Han Li glanced at the beads in the case with a trace of awkwardness.
There was no doubt that these rainbow beads had a strong relationship with the Heavenmend Pill. Why else would they appear together in the image? After considering that the beads had been refined from Zenith Brilliance’s skeleton, he suddenly recalled Zenith Brilliance’s Bloodjade Spiders. Could it be that the Bone Sage’s traitorous disciple had entered Heavenvoid Hall with the spiders and acquired a Heavenmend Pill?
This was one possible explanation as to why Zenith Brilliance’s bones had turned rainbow colored and why they had formed into beads after being exposed to flames.
From Han Li’s experience with taking many medicine pills, the Heavenmend Pill must’ve either not yet been fully refined, or its medicinal nature was so fierce that it required one to continue strenuously refining it after consumption.
From these conjectures and its prominent appearance in the jade slip, it appeared like these rainbow beads held a significant relation towards the Heavenmend Pearl.
Although using a cultivator’s body as a pill furnace to produce medicine pills was rarely seen in the cultivation world, Han Li had personally witnessed this once before. The Black Fiend School’s Blood Congealed Five Element Cores was one particularly bloody and tyrannical example.
But with all this being said, it was only Han Li’s wishful thinking in the end. He wasn't about to rashly swallow them without further deliberation.
With some further thought, he decided to leave this hidden room and head towards the insect rooms.
His current insect rooms weren’t as simple as they had been in Heavenly Star City. They were split into five stone rooms of differing sizes. Among two of these rooms were Han Li’s two separate groups of Gold Devouring Beetles.
One of the swarms had followed Han Li through Heavenvoid Hall in a display of amazing strength, with the tens of thousands Gold Devouring Beetles having consumed no small number of Ironfire Ants. The other swarm was made up of the thousand elites he had left in his cave residence at Heavenly Star City.
Perhaps due to eating a great number of Ironfire Ants, the tens of thousands of Gold Devouring Beetles appeared to be on the verge of reproducing. They’d already started to devour one another, much to Han Li’s pleasant surprise.
As for the other stone rooms, one housed Han Li’s sole remaining Bloodjade Spider while another room housed his perpetually sleeping Weeping Soul Beast. The final room contained the Gold Threaded Silkworms he had acquired from Heavenvoid Hall.
Although Han Li had the Weeping Soul Beast’s control pearl in hand, he had always felt hesitant about refining it, and decided to put it away for the time being. Rather, his delay in refining it didn't seem to affect the spirit beast all that much.
When Han Li’s acquisition of the Gold Threaded Silkworms hadn’t occurred on a whim. They had a position on the list of exotic insects despite being ranked quite low. Although they weren’t a match for the Bloodjade Spider, they had a seldomly known second evolution. Given enough time, they could possibly evolve into a Flame Mirage Moth. While they would still be somewhat weaker than the Gold Devouring Beetles, ranking seventeen on the list of exotic insects, they had an innate ability of transformation.
While its power was formidable, its description was quite vague. It seems this insect had seldomly been seen even in ancient times. Even if the Mirage Flame Moth’s high ran
king was somewhat inaccurate, it was by no means insignificant.
As such, in spite of the old eccentrics flabbergasted gaze, he had chosen to gather up the Gold Threaded Silkworms that were on the verge of death. They had been discarded by Wan Tianming without the slightest hesitation as the Gold Threaded Silkworms had nearly exhausted the entirety of their Origin Qi at the time.
After acquiring them, Han Li continuously fed them Soul Nurturing Pills and other rare spiritual medicines. However, all this had seemingly accomplished at this point was prolonging the inevitable. With each passing day, they grew increasingly haggard and Han Li could only helplessly watch as they continued to decline.
At that moment, an idea suddenly came to him. He directly arrived at the Gold Threaded Silkworm’s room and frowned at what he saw through the spell restriction barrier.
At that moment, the huge dark-green silkworms were motionlessly lying on the ground as if they had already died. Were it not for the faint spiritual Qi emitted from their bodies, he would’ve believed them to be dead.
Han Li entered the room without hesitation and circled around the exotic insects for a moment before picking out the male and female silkworms with the strongest spirit amongst them. Afterwards, he took out two rainbow beads from the jade box and fed one to each silkworm before leaving the room.
Han Li’s thoughts were quite simple.
Since these insects couldn’t be saved, he may as well test test the medicinal effects of the rainbow beads. With the grand reputation of the Heavenmend Pill, their medicinal powers should be beyond miraculous.
If these beads were as he had imagined and were truly Heavenmend Pills, then he would stand to benefit even if the Gold Threaded Silkworms couldn’t be saved.
Naturally, if the Gold Threaded Silkworms responded negatively to the beads, he would no longer pay any heed to the beads.
The following days were spent looking after the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng with the utmost care. This unique root was of great importance to his later formation of a Nascent Soul.
At the center of his medicinal garden, Han Li sectioned off a small piece of earth. After placing down formation flags that he had specifically refined for the task, the surrounding soil became an impenetrable layer of golden stone.
With this, he could finally place the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng inside with confidence.
As for the ginseng’s white rabbit spirit incarnation, it was still trapped inside a jade box. Han Li had no intention of keeping it there for long. After all, it could have a negative effect on the spirit ginseng if they were separated for too long.
Han Li then brought the talisman clad jade box into the medicinal garden and placed it at the spirit ginseng’s side.
After tearing off the talismans and opening the box, a streak of white light shot out of the box and circled around the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng before disappearing inside it.
When Han Li saw this, he wore a knowing smile.
It seemed the white rabbit incarnation was filled with trepidation since it had already been captured once before. It was quite timid.
But when Han Li glanced at the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng’s body, he began to ponder whether or not the green liquid would have any miraculous effects on it.
He then put the thought aside for the time being. The spirit ginseng wasn’t going anywhere, and the green liquid was required elsewhere. These tests would have to be saved for later.
Furthermore, the green liquid might greatly increase the abilities of the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng, allowing it to possibly escape from the formation spell and leave him overcome with grief.
This wasn’t an ordinary plant, but a legendary divine medicinal plant. It was best to be careful.
With that thought, Han Li no longer paid any attention to the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng after successfully containing it.
As for the green liquid, Han Li was currently using all of it to mature the Soul Nurturing Tree, one of the renowned three divine woods. Although it was only a small root, Han Li was confident that within several years, it would regrow back into a ten thousand year tree.
Originally, Han Li intended to study the Heavenvoid Cauldron, and see if he could find a way to open it.
But in the process, he accidentally stumbled across the Bone Sage’s small rib bone, diverting his interest for the time being. Since it was able to withstand the fearsome Sacred Asura Flames, it should prove to be quite unordinary.
Laying down on his bed, he toyed with the sparkling white item in his hand as he curiously glanced at it.
Chapter 519: Profound Yin Arts
The first thing Han Li realized about the rib bone was that it was obviously not the Sage Bone’s true rib bone. Its current form was merely a trick that the old devil had used to deceive the eyes of others. Without even mentioning the odd material that it had been created from, one could already tell it wasn’t any sort of magic treasure from the faint spiritual Qi that it released. However, there was no doubt that it was a man made item. But regardless of whether Han Li immersed it with spiritual sense or spiritual power, the rib didn’t respond in the slightest.
Han Li furrowed his brow and immediately recalled that the old devil had tread the path of a demon ghost. Perhaps this item required Yin Soul Qi in order to control it.
He took out the Soul Congregation Bowl from his spirit pouch, and casually stared at the pitch-black bowl in his hand before emitting a flash of blue light from his palm. A trace of Yin Qi then flowed into his body through his hand. After slowly circulating the Yin Qi throughout his body, he grasped the rib bone with his other hand.
Han Li rigidly started at the rib bone as it quickly became enveloped in a ball of icy, black Yin Qi.
The rib bone finally responded. The originally flawless white exterior of the rib bone started to turn black, absorbing the Yin Qi surrounding it, turning half white and half black.
Han Li wasn’t particularly surprised by this transformation; he merely raised his eyebrow at the sight. After closing his eyes in thought, Han Li sat up in his bed, suddenly emitting a blinding azure light from the hand holding the Soul Congregation Bowl. At the same time, ghostly wails could be faintly heard from his other hand, gathering an even darker cloud of Yin Qi around the rib bone.
The rib bone wildly devoured the Yin Qi without the slightest restraint. After the time it took to finish a cup of tea, the rib bone eventually turned completely black.
The bone suddenly began to release a low-pitched hum and emitted rays of pitch-black light, filling the room with a freakish, eerie aura.
Han Li hesitantly put away the Soul Congregation Bowl and relaxed his grip on the bone, allowing it to float from his hand. The Yin Qi that had surrounded the bone was then dispersed by the shock of the black radiance that it suddenly emitted.
Han Li’s gaze continuously flickered as he watched the bizarre scene.
Apart from the continuous low-pitched hums and flickers of radiance, the black bone no longer showed another other changes.
After a moment, Han Li’s expression stirred, and he suddenly beckoned towards it.
Woosh. The bone flew into his grasp. After taking another look at it, he immersed his spiritual sense into it. This time, his spiritual sense was no longer obstructed, allowing him to easily enter the rib bone.
As a result, black light flashed before his eyes, revealing a stream of huge ancient characters and pictures into his mind.
“Jade slip!” Han Li muttered with an expression of shock.
The bone was some sort of unique jade slip, something that he had previously guessed. After restraining the excitement in his heart, he started to earnestly analyze the words within.
“Profound Yin Arts!”
Han Li read through the first half of the words and found them extremely familiar. He was certain that he had read them before. Although he hadn’t personally cultivated this renowned Devilish Dao cultivation art, his avatar Crooked Soul had refined a derivative of it, the Divine Bloodlight. After re
ading through it, Han Li came to the conclusion that while the cultivation arts had many minor differences, as a whole they were largely the same. The rib bone jade slip actually contained the so-called Profound Yin Scriptures.
To tell the truth, Han Li was somewhat disappointed. Since he already cultivated the Azure Essence Sword Arts, he wasn’t about to foolishly abandon them to recultivate with this technique even if it did possess an overbearing power.
However, he didn’t immediately withdraw his spiritual sense from the Profound Yin Scriptures. The Devil Dao secret techniques that were contained in the second half were something that he could possible cultivate.
Soon after Han Li read through each of the unbelievable secret techniques, his original disappointment turned into surprise, then slight solemness, and finally, excitement.
The secret techniques were powerful and truly inconceivable. He was confident that once he cultivated the ninth layer of the Azure Essence Sword Arts and the suitable secret techniques of the Profound Yin Scriptures, he would be able to escape from any Nascent Soul cultivator that crossed his path. No longer would he be doomed to helplessly accept death if he encountered any of those Nascent Soul Eccentrics!
Among these secret techniques were Zenith Yin’s Heavenwide Corpsefire. As for the Heavenwide Demon Corpse, they were merely refined corpses that happened to be produced in the process of refining the Corpsefire.
Unfortunately, these secret techniques required the Profound Yin Arts as a cultivation base and required a cultivation at the Nascent Soul stage or higher. Otherwise, he would’ve definitely attempted to refine it for himself. After all, he had personally witness the ferocious power of the Heavenwide Corpsefire.
But even as powerful as it was, the weaknesses of the Heavenwide Corpsefire were made clear from its cultivation chant.
When Han Li saw this, he coldly chuckled. If Zenith Yin tried to use Heavenwide Corpsefire to deal with him in the future, Han Li would surely give him a nice surprise!
After looking through it for a moment more, Han Li was able to find three secret techniques that he fancied that a Core Formation cultivator could refine. He then committed them to memory until he could find the time to cultivate them.
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