As of current, the astonishing might of this Aureate Sword Formation was fundamentally unobtainable, like flowery mist or the reflection of the moon in water.
After further thought in the silent room, Han Li could only bitterly chuckle and set aside the matter for the time being. He then took out a jade box from his storage pouch and opened it to reveal a lustrous ball of golden light. Rolls of thunder faintly clapped as soon as it appeared.
“Celestial Ice Flames!”
When he glanced at this precious treasure, Han Li’s expression grew sullen. With his current cultivation, he could now make an attempt to refine the flames. If he could successfully refine this icy flame, he could very likely acquire the Heavenvoid Cauldron.
Chapter 647: Setting off on a Journey
Since the Celestial Ice Flames would allow him to easily exterminate Nascent Soul cultivators, Han Li didn’t dare to be careless. He possessed several techniques for refining devilfire, but he ended up choosing one of the secret techniques contained in the Profound Yin Arts as he felt it to be the most reliable.
Having decided, Han Li attentively stared at the golden ball of lightning for a moment and extended his finger towards it. With a crackle, a fine sliver of lightning suddenly arced from his finger and shot towards the golden ball. Suddenly, the golden ball trembled several times and brightly shone before being dragged into the air by the sliver of lightning.
Han Li sat down and raised his head to look up at the golden ball with narrowed eyes. At that point, he began to form a series of complicated incantation gestures with his hands.
With rolls of thunder, dense arcs of golden lightning began to flicker and form an impenetrable net of lightning surrounding the ball. Once the ball of lightning was surrounded by the net, the scene grew still.
At that moment, Han Li sighed and his spiritual sense stirred, connecting with the shell of Divine Devilbane Lightning surrounding the Celestial Ice Flames. Thunderous bellows reverberated throughout the room and the golden sphere grew dazzling. Fine arcs of lightning began to repeatedly shoot out from the golden sphere and its bindings relaxed, revealing a deep blue, translucent pearl underneath.
Han Li held his breath upon seeing the Celestial Ice Pearl. Having personally witnessed its power before, fear of it still lingered in his heart.
With the ice pearl’s appearance, Han Li spat out an azure flying sword from his mouth without further thought and momentarily pressed his hands together. A dense bolt of lightning suddenly shot out from his hands, simultaneously striking the ice pearl in an overbearing attack alongside the flying sword.
The pearl cracked open with a boom. With a pulse of light, the sphere turned into a unstable sphere of blue flames. The sphere of flames then expanded before condensing into a fist-sized blue flower. Each of its petals glistened as the flower slowly blossomed.
Simultaneously, a layer of blue frost began to spread throughout the walls, enveloping the entire room in a realm of freezing ice in the blink of an eye.
However, Han Li had long prepared for this. Although a solemn expression appeared on his face, he remained calm as a dense layer of azure light securely protected his body. With his Nascent Soul cultivation, he was able to completely protect himself from the assault of the icy flames, fearsome as they may be.
Han Li felt somewhat relieved to see that the icy Qi was unable to penetrate the light barrier protecting his body and proceeded to point into the air. The net of Divine Devilbane Lightning immediately shrunk back and enveloped the blue flower of light. Underneath the golden sparkling light and blue radiance, the huge blue flower began to change once more into a flame attempting its utmost to resist the lightning net’s constriction.
Seeing that the Celestial Ice Flames were restricted, Han Li took a deep breath and began to move his spiritual sense. Claps of thunder rang out as a small hole opened from the golden net, only to be mended a moment later. But in that short instance, a sliver of blue flame escaped and shot towards Han Li as if it were intelligent.
Han Li expressionlessly clasped his hands in an incantation in response and he closed his eyes. Azure Qi began to flow out from the crown of his head, followed by the emergence of an inch-tall Nascent Soul.
The Nascent Soul’s face appeared tense. As soon as it appeared, it stared at the incoming wisp of blue flame and it twisted its chubby arms, releasing two streaks of blinding azure light. At the same time, it opened its mouth and spat out a fist-sized ball of light, resulting in three masses of azure light to meet the wisp of blue flame.
The azure light and blue flame clashed, but the blue flame was instantly enveloped by the azure light. Despite its struggle, the flame was truly too small and was easily overwhelmed. However, even as the flame wisp was trapped, it slowly dissipated the light around it.
When the Nascent Soul saw the flame was successfully contained, a smile appeared on its face and beckoned to the azure light, bringing the flame wisp closer to it.
After revealing a trace of hesitation and fear, the Nascent Soul eye’s brightly glinted and grasped onto the azure light, shoving it down its mouth alongside the wisp of blue flame it contained.
Shortly after, azure light flashed from its body and the Nascent Soul disappeared into mist as it flew back into Han Li’s head.
Han Li’s eyelids trembled several times in response, but his expression unchanged as if he were sleeping. However, inside his Dantian, his Nascent Soul sat cross-legged wearing a solemn expression as its hands formed an incantation gesture.
...
Half a year later, Han Li emerged from the silent room with a gloomy expression.
The Celestial Ice Flames were truly ferocious. Although he had attempted to refine only a sliver of flame, it had taken half a year of hard effort. However, due to the flame’s extreme coldness, he would need to nurture it inside his body for an additional year before he could truly control it. In order to prevent any mishap, he couldn’t refine any more of the Celestial Ice Flames during this time. As for the Heavenvoid Cauldron, he refined far too little of the Celestial Ice Flames to even think of attempting the next step.
The reason why Han Li left seclusion now instead of continuing to cultivate was to visit the silver-haired old man and Cultivator Lu. He wanted to see if either of them had any news with regards to Auric Essence.
Additionally, he planned on bidding farewell to the Drifting Cloud Sect for some time. During his travels, he would pay a trip to the State of Yuan Wu in order to fulfill his promise with Xin Ruyin. [1]
At his current cultivation, exterminating a cultivation clan should only be a trivial effort.
As for the Fu Clan of the Hundred Possibilities Sect and the State of Yuan Wu, they did share some history together. The Fu Clan in the State of Yuan Wu was a distant branch of the Fu Clan in the Hundred Possibilities Sect.
However, the two clans grew distant over a long period of time and the Fu Clan in the State of Yuanwu had joined the Devil Dao, much to the resentment of the main branch who were part of the Heavenly Dao Alliance. As a result, both sides had cut relations to one another.
Han Li grew greatly relieved from this turn of events. Although the State of Yuan Wu belonged to the Devil Dao, there would be few in that country that would be capable of stopping him.
When Han Li left his cave residence, he visited the side residence in passing and swept his spiritual sense inside the cave residence to discover Mu Peiling strenuously cultivating in seclusion. From the light glistening from her face, it appeared that she had made great progress.
Pleased with her efforts, Han Li left without disturbing her and headed straight towards the main mountain of the Drifting Cloud Sect.
Six hours later, Han Li silently left the cave residence of the silver-haired old man. The old man didn’t have any concrete information on any Auric Essence, but he had informed him that in two years, there would be a grand trade fair taking place in the Nine Nation Union’s State of Yu. It was known to be the greatest trade fair to take
place in the Heavenly South Region.
Many rare materials would gather there from all around the Heavenly South Region. Even half of the continent’s Nascent Soul cultivators would each make a trip there. After all, Nascent Soul cultivators were the ones who most required precious materials. Since common materials and medicines were simply beneath their notice, their only option was to find trade meetings and acquire their rare needs there.
The reason why the trade fair was to be held in the Nine Nations Union was because the Nine Nations Union was considered a neutral power. Due to the threat of the Moulan Spell Warriors, the other three powers had no fear of the Nine Nations Union harboring any wicked schemes. As a result, the cultivators of those three powers had no misgivings participating in the trade fair.
Currently, Han Li could only hope that Auric Essence would appear at trade fair. Otherwise, he couldn’t possibly know when he’d be able to use the Aureate Sword Formation. He may even have to pay a visit to the legendary Great Empire of Jin, but that was truly too far away.
After Han Li finished asking the silver-haired old man about the Auric Essence, he told the old man that he planned leaving the sect for some time. He didn't mention where he was going to go, only that he planned on traveling for some time as he had just formed his Nascent Soul, and that he was taking his leave.
When the silver-haired old man heard him, he wasn’t suspicious in the slightest. He merely mentioned the affiliations of each country and the names of a few Nascent Soul cultivators that Han Li should take notice of and never offend. At that moment, Han Li heard the name of this Eccentric Heavenvenge once more.
Han Li was quite curious towards this cultivator and made a note of him. He then expressed his thanks to the old man and departed.
On the morning of the next day, Han Li stored the most important items in his cave residence on his person and sealed his cave residence off using restrictions. He then departed from the Dreamcloud Mountains, flying in the direction of the State of Yuan Wu.
The Fu Clan in the State of Yuan Wu was once renowned as one of the three great sects in the country. When the Devil Dao invaded over a hundred years ago, this clan hadn’t resisted their invasion in the slightest and even provided assistance to the Six Devil Dao Sects. As a result, the Fu Clan hadn’t suffered any damage from the invasion; instead, they were given the opportunity to flourish. After overwhelming the other clans in the country, they became the number one clan in the State of Yuan Wu.
Because the Fu Clan had frequently placed many of their disciples into the Devilflame Sect, even giving their clan’s gifted women to the Devilflame Sect’s upper echelon as concubines, they were considered to be completely subservient to the sect. As a result, the Fu Clan gained the support of the Devilflame Sect, the dominating power over the State of Yuan Wu, and wildly flourished in the past hundred years.
Chapter 648: A Party of Three
The Fu Clan’s main stronghold was located deep inside a mountain range in the west of Yuan Wu, The mountain range was known as the Purple Road Mountains as a purple mist sealed it off year long. Not only are mortals unable to see once they tread into the mist, if they stay within it for too long, their eyes would start sting and their throats would become sore. If they stay within it for even longer, they could even die of poison.
Although locals knew of the dangers of this mist and would take care to avoid it, there would always be ignorant outsiders who entered, only to perish. The Fu Clan were aware of the mortals dying from the mist, but they hardly batted an eye.
If mortals died, then so be it. The Fu Clan expended a great amount of effort to create the Violet Miasma Cloud Formation, requiring them to invite several formation masters to simultaneously work on it. In a sense, these mortals could be considered lucky to have died by this formation.
In the past several days, although the Purple Cloud Mountains were still enshrouded in mist, a commotion began to stir as the typically desolate place suddenly became lively. Occasionally, cultivators would appear outside the mist and shout something. Afterwards, they would reveal a lustrous red invitation before disappearing into the mist.
The nearest mortal settlement to the Purple Road Mountains was a small city named Taihe. This city only spanned five kilometers and its population didn’t exceed ten thousand. However, it had all the facilities one would expect from a city such as inns and restaurants.
Ah’er was a waiter at one of the two inns of Taihe City. Although he was only nineteen years old, he had been a waiter for four years now. With his thin body, he leaned against the side of the inn’s doors and dispiritedly called out to those who walked by.
This wasn’t because Ah’er was being lazy, but because the weather was simply scorching hot. After yelling in the hot weather for the entire morning, he no longer had any strength left. Even that petty, crafty Innkeeper Liu couldn’t say anything in response to his dejected manner. Although he wore a dissatisfied expression, he could only grumble his complaints and gloomily handle his abacus, calculating the dense ledger on the table.
Ah’er glanced at an expanse of white clouds in the sky and inwardly cursed with all his heart. Then, after lowering his head, he muttered out a greeting to a passerby in a manner that they didn't even hear him, and he became even more dejected.
Just as he wondered whether or not he could take advantage of Innkeeper Liu’s inattention to sneak into the kitchen for a few drinks of cold water to relieve himself from the heat, the sky suddenly dimmed and he felt a chill. This surprised Ah’er, and he couldn’t help but raise his head.
Much to his shock, he discovered that three eccentrics had unknowingly appeared before him.
One of the men wore hemp robes and a tall hat. He was short and resembled a large ball. The other was a bald man with piercing eyes. The last of them was a man with long hair draping over his face. His face possessed a sinister air and his eyes were ice-cold.
Having spent so many years as a waiter, Ah’er knew how to act. He immediately smiled and said, “Do you guests wish to stay at the inn?” From his years of many experience, this party were sure to be generous customers despite their fiendish appearance.
The short, plump man glared with his small eyes and casually took out a large piece of silver. He shoved it into the waiter’s chest and impatiently said, “Cut the rubbish. Why else would we come at an inn if not to stay there? Prepare a room on the second floor for us, and a table of top-rate food and wine for us as well.”
Without waiting for Ah’er’s reply, Innkeeper Liu jumped up and immediately acted like a robust man, leaping out of the gate and taking the silver piece out of Ah’er’s hands. With a ingratiating expression, he said, “Yes, yes! Please enter, Sirs. Food and wine will be immediately sent for you. Ah’er, go prepare the rooms, don’t be slow.”
“Yes, Innkeeper.” Although Innkeeper Lui's actions had caused him to feel deeply resentful, Ah’er could only obey. He could only sigh and allow the silver piece to be taken away.
Were it not for the fact he only had the skills for a waiter and that there were only two inns in the city, he wouldn't be doing anything for the contemptable Innkeeper. After resentfully cursing Innkeeper Liu in his heart, Ah’er brought the three to a room on the second floor, before leaving to go back downstairs.
“Huh?” Just as Ah’er left their side, the scorching heat suddenly returned. This sudden change made him to feel puzzled as he scratched the back of his head. After tilting his head in thought, he went back downstairs in a confused manner.
Not long after, a table of food was quickly prepared and brought up by Ah’er and a few other servants.
The cultivators were waiting at the table in complete silence.
Ah’er was baffled upon seeing them. At that moment, the cultivator with the draped hair coldly glanced in his direction as if he had noticed something.
The glance instantly made Ah’er feel a freezing chill, as if he were suddenly submerged in ice, and with a shaken heart he lowered his head a
nd left the room in a panic. He directly returned to the inn’s door with a pounding heart, unable to control himself in the slightest.
At that moment, the three in the room finally began to speak.
Sensing that there was no one outside the room, the short man chuckled and spoke to the man with the draped hair, “Brother Han, why did you startle the mortal? Did you find him displeasing to the eye?”
The draped-haired man flatly said, “It was nothing. It was just that waiter possessed spiritual roots. However, his aptitude is poor. He would only be able to reach the third or fourth layer of the Qi Condensation stage.”
A trace of astonishment appeared in the fat man’s expression, “Spiritual roots? That’s surprising. However, it seems that Brother Han is actually able to see through spiritual roots without any physical contact. It appears Brother Han is quite a skilled individual.”
The draped-haired cultivator glanced at the fat cultivator and slowly said, “My cultivation isn’t any higher than you two Fellow Daoists. I merely cultivated a related secret technique.”
The fat cultivator sighed and bitterly laughed, “Brother Han is far too modest. However, that waiter can be said to have no prospects in the cultivation world. Even if he managed to somehow reach the Foundation Establishment stage like us, if he doesn’t have the backing of a sect, he'll merely be a wild lone wolf, a target of humiliation to cultivators of a similar grade! We ourselves came to Purple Road Mountains to bid the Fu Clan Ancestor a happy birthday to see if we could find an opportunity to join the sect. If we're able to catch the eye of a Devil Dao Sect or the Clan Ancestor, we’d be quite fortunate. It's just a pity that us vagrant cultivators can only enter the Fu Clan Castle on the Ancestor’s birth date, so we still have to wait outside for another month.”
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