Then under Cultivator Song’s amazed gaze, Han Li paused for a moment as if deliberating what to say. “If the Spirit Kindle Fruit is truly within the valley, I will most likely make an attempt for it. After all, it is incredibly difficult to progress one’s cultivation in Nascent Soul stage. If I do not seize this opportunity, I may find myself forever struck at early Nascent Soul stage. However, I won’t be saying about being overly careful before entering Devilfall Valley, unless it is absolutely necessary. When the time comes to enter, I’ll be sure to stress what dangers you should be careful off and point out any dangerous aspects of the Ghost Spirit Sect’s method to enter the valley. Nevertheless, what I said before were merely guesses. It is possible that the Ghost Spirit Sect has a method of entering the valley that is even greater than Master Cang Kun’s. This was also one of the reasons I hadn’t mentioned the matter from before.”
When Cultivator Song heard this, she grew silent but her eyes seemed to reveal understanding.
“Enough of that. I originally didn’t plan on telling you this, but since you asked, I gave you an answer. Having returned to Skyfirst city, your most important task is to survive the battle ahead. It will be your top priority.
If you run out of luck, something may happen during the war, and you need not further consider going to Devilfall Valley. It will be the same for me. When I return to Skyfirst City, I will be setting the matter aside for more pressing affairs.” With that said, Han Li wore a self-mocking smirk.
Cultivator Song felt her heart trembled at his words and curtsied. “Many thanks for Martial Uncle’s advice.”
Han Li waved his arm. “It is hardly advice. Just needlessly said things that you would’ve come to understand after some thought. Let’s enter the city, the sky is nearly dark.”
“Yes, Martial Uncle!”
The azure streak of light shot forth at full speed once more and entered through the gates of the city.
...
Several days later in the Drifting Cloud Sect’s encampment, Han Li was sitting cross-legged in a hidden room surrounded by layers of restrictions. He was holding up a fifteen meter long sword in his hands and was thinking of something with a frown. Strange azure and purple flames were currently burning on top of them — the Purple Apex flames and the azure flames of the azure lantern.
After he came back from his meeting with Violet Spirit, Han Li had Lu Luo introduce him to many Nascent Soul cultivators with good relations to the Drifting Cloud Sect. During that time, he asked this various cultivators to take a look at this difficult problem. However, they were at a complete loss over the matter.
These cultivators naturally knew of Han Li’s great reputation so they didn’t dare to be negligent and wished to establish good relations with him instead. There were a few that even had a rather pleasant conversation with him, but nevertheless, Han Li gained little from his discussions. Afterwards, he immediately sought out a quiet room to deal with the lingering damage of the battle — the azure flames that had never ceased burning.
The swords weren’t harmed as the flames burned. They were in balanced competition with the Purple Apex Flames. While it was unknown what kind of devilflame this azure flame was, its might was just as astonishing as his own Purple Apex Flames. He could now rely on quantity to forcefully restrain the flames, but it was still a problem with how he could refine them.
If these azure flames weren’t eliminated, he wouldn’t be able to use his Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords, nor would he be able to easily draw on the Celestial Ice Flames and Purple Apex Flames to attack.
At that moment, Han Li was staring at the sword with wandering eyes. After a long moment of consideration, he raised his hand above the huge sword and struck it with an azure spell seal.
The huge sword revolved once in the air and split into several tens of small flying swords with a ring. Han Li’s spiritual sense stirred and a majority of his flying swords shot back into his body as streaks of azure lights. Only one sword remained in the air, slowly floating in front of Han Li.
Han Li glanced at the sword’s azure and purple flames. He narrowed his eyes and he suddenly opened his mouth, spitting out a streak of purple flames directly onto the surface of the flying sword. It flourished with purple flames, restraining the azure flames.
Then under the control of an incantation seal, roiling purple flames slowly pressured the azure flames to the tip of the swords before turning into a pea-sized ball of azure light.
Having seen this, Han Li wore a grave expression. With a deep breath, he began to form incantation gestures in a flurry, sending streak after seak of various colored spell seals onto the sword. In an instant, the sword’s purple flames grew turbulent and more powerful as they formed wave after wave of flames towards the tip of the azure sword.
The azure flame began to sway and grow unsteady on the sword tip as if it were about to be extinguished. However, the azure light simply grew brighter as the purple flames exert more pressure. No matter what the purple flames did, the azure light remained at the sword tip without being extinguished.
A trace of dread appeared from his eyes as the hand incantations he formed grew more hurried.
A short moment later, Han Li’s face grew unsightly; there wasn’t any change in the slightest. Then with another moment of thought, an icy glint appeared in his eye and he waved his hand, covering it in a layer of brilliant purple flames.
Then without the slightest hesitation, he pinched off the azure flames from the flying swords.
Chapter 755: Lightning Bead
Han Li pinched the azure flames at the tip of the sword and held them in his enflamed fingers. However, he felt his fingertips grow numb as a huge force began to emit from the azure flames and forcefully repelled his grasp — the azure flame still remaining on the sword.
Han Li was dumbstruck but something soon came to mind. He widened his flaming hand and had the purple flames alone envelope the azure flames. Han Li’s hand remained still as his fingers continued to spout blinding violet flames, causing intertwined azure and purple light to pulse.
This continued for quarter hour more before he sighed and shake his hand. The purple flames in his hand disappeared without a trace, leaving behind only a dazzling and translucent ember of azure flame.
This strange flame was more troublesome than he had anticipated. The Violet Apex Flames may be able to contend against them, but it found it difficult to refine them.
After some further deliberation, Han Li raised his hand and pointed to the flying sword in front of him. With muffled claps of thunder, the flying sword burst forth with arcs of golden lightning. As soon as the lightning appeared, it shot towards the azure ember in countless tendrils and completely enveloped it. The pea-sized ember glowed and cleanly absorbed the golden lightning as if it were a bottomless pit. Its brilliance grew vastly bright and the flame swelled to the size of an egg.
As this occurred, Han Li’s eyes shined with a bright blue light as he stared at the azure ember absorbing the golden lightning. His expression wavered as he stood still for an unknown amount of time before sighing. The blue light within his eyes faded away, but his face now appeared hesitant. A short moment later, he came to a decision and nodded. He opened his mouth and breathed in the bit of purple flame that still remained on the flying sword.
Without the suppression of the Purple Apex Flames, the azure flames on the sword flourished and enveloped the entire sword in a mere moment. As the treasure was bonded to Han Li’s soul, his face immediately paled from the pain that followed. However, he didn’t pay this any further attention and simply flicked his fingers towards the sword, shooting streaks of azure swordstreaks from his hands.
The azure swordstreaks had been completely absorbed just like the Divine Devilbane Lightning. However, Han Li continued to circulate the spiritual power inside his body as if nothing had happened and continued to strike the azure ember with repeated attacks of swordstreaks, quickly consuming their magic power.
As a re
sult, the azure flames took the swordstreaks as kindle, causing them to roar and surge with brilliant light.
At that moment, Han Li had already consumed a third of his magic power.
With the lantern flames greatly enlarged, Han Li smiled and ceased attacking. Instead, he beckoned at the sword Qi within the fireball.
In a gust of wind, the Bamboo Cloudswarm Sword was able to easily leave the azure flames. It circled once around before landing in his hand.
Han Li lowered his head and took a look at it. He couldn’t help but smile at the translucent blade being completely free of flame.
“As expected! Although the flames are miraculous, it has a limit of how much spiritual power it can absorb. Once it absorbed too much of the Azure Sword Qi, it was capable of being manipulated.” Once that was muttered, he slapped his hands together and the sword disappeared in a flash of light.
Han Li then turned his eyes towards the azure ball of flame before him. He lightly tapped it, sending a sliver of his spiritual sense into it. The azure fireball then trembled and began to slowly revolve as it pulsed with light.
Han Li raised his brow and attempted to command the fireball with his spiritual sense, but it merely swayed from start to finish. A short moment later, he was able to command it to sluggishly fly three meters into an air at a crooked angle.
When Han Li saw this, he stroked his chin and began to mutter to himself. Given how powerful the azure flames were, it would be a waste not to use them.
Although he was able to forcefully control the flames from the large quantities of Azure Essence Sword Qi that it had absorbed, it was clear to see that this method also came with its flaws. After all, these flames weren’t something that he had refined. It would be difficult to control it as naturally as the Celestial Ice Flames.
Han Li frowned and stared at the azure fireball as his mind wandered. He then reached for his storage pouch and summoned a flawlessly smooth rib bone and a faint yellow bottle into his hand. This was the Bone Sage’s jade slip that recorded the Profound Yin Arts and the magic tool he had used to absorb demon beast souls.
Han Li opened the bottle and released a cloud of black Qi. He grabbed the air in the direction of the Black Qi and summoned it into his palm. Then under the control of his spiritual sense, the ghost Qi immediately flew into the rib bone that he held in his other hand. In a moment, it turned black and began to float in the air, releasing a sinister black light.
When Han Li saw this, he pressed the bone against his forehead and quickly read through the contents of the Profound Yin Arts, searching for something in particular.
Just as Han Li found the “Yinfire Lightning” technique, he rejoiced and began to carefully read through its contents.
While the technique’s name may suggest it to be ordinary, it was a technique on par with the Profound Yin Art’s Heavenwide Corpsefire. However, it wasn’t some secret Devil Dao technique. Rather, it was a secret technique to refine lightning beads like the Heavenly Lightning Seed that Han Li had used in the past. According to its description, the Yinfire Lightning possessed astonishing might when successfully created, displaying a destructive might even greater than the Heavenwide Corpsefire.
In principle, condensing such a large quantity of pure yinfire into an explosive required other materials in order to stabilize it, creating a weapon that was capable of inflicting devastating damage.
But it was a pity that these mines were only single use items. Not only were there many restrictions that must be followed when refining them, it was also troublesome as well. It was only refinable by cultivators who could control lightning attribute spirit power. As a result, Zenith Yin and the Bone Sage had never been able to refine these items.
When Han Li first saw the Yinfire Lightning refinement method, he didn’t pay much attention to it. He was able to control Divine Devilbane Lightning, but he swept past it since he only wished for secret techniques that were easy to learn such as the Yin Devil Execution. But now that this troubling azure flame had appeared before him, he recalled the refinement technique for the Yinfire Lightnings.
Originally, refining the Yinfire Lightnings required a large quantity of spiritual power and the rate of success wouldn’t be large either. Also, there were sparsely few cultivators capable of controlling lightning, and these weapons were short lived as they were consumables.
Although Han Li couldn’t use the Profound Yin Arts, he no longer needed to strictly follow the Yinfire Lightning refinement technique with his current knowledge and cultivation. He simply needed to alter the refinement method to make sure of the azure flames in order to refine them. And since the azure flames might were no less than the Purple Apex Flames, they would be no less powerful than the Yinfire Lightnings that were originally described.
In the past, he had thoughts of using the Celestial Ice Flames or even the Purple Apex Flames to refine the mines. But because the two flames were too difficult to refine and he lacked the amount needed to face enemies, he didn’t dare to squander them on this idea and tossed the matter to the back of his head.
Now that he had the azure flames, which he could neither store nor refine, he could now put his plan into action. This way, he would have another devastating weapon to use in the incoming war.
With that thought, Han Li took a look at the other items in his storage pouch.
Han Li was eventually able to find the materials needed to refine the lightning beads. These items weren’t rare in the least; they were all common materials used to refine tools and pills.
After taking out all these items once by one and arranging them in front of him, he faced the flickering fireball and he raised his hands with a grave expression. With a series of rumbles, two arcs of lightning shot out from his palms, striking the azure fireball.
...
In the main hall of the Drifting Cloud Sect encampment, Lu Luo was motionlessly sitting in his chair without a trace of emotion. There were several Drifting Cloud Sect Core Formation disciples standing on front of him, the red-clothed Cultivator Song among them. They all appeared somewhat apprehensive.
Lu Luo calmly asked, “Martial Nephew Duan, your Martial Uncle Han still hasn’t left seclusion after these many days?”
“Reporting, Martial Uncle Han has remained in seclusion for two months. Junior Martial Sister Song and I have been guarding his room since the very beginning. He had yet to leave.”
Lu Luo sighed and muttered, “When your Martial Uncle Han entered seclusion, he had already told me that he had to make preparations for the coming war and wished that we wouldn’t bother him during his seclusion. However, the Moulan have just about finished gathering together and are about to move. There is a meeting being held amongst the high grade cultivators, and they want your Martial Uncle Han to attend. They had used this as a reason to delay the meeting, but now that the three great cultivators had arrived at Skyfirst City, they sent a request for Han Li to attend it. Since this is a meeting that only mid Nascent Soul cultivators can attend, this clearly illustrates your Martial Uncle Han’s importance to them. We can’t push this off any longer. Furthermore, I reckon that this meeting will decide the final decisions for the battle. If someone from our sect were to attend, it would bring great benefits.”
Having heard Martial Uncle Lu, the other cultivators in the hall wore a bitter smile.
After a moment of hesitation, Cultivator Song worriedly said, “However, Martial Uncle Han is certain to be at a crucial moment of his seclusion. If we were to rashly disturb him, wouldn’t we spoil his efforts?”
The middle-aged cultivator with a long, thin mustache also appeared hesitant and said, “Even if there are some apprehensions, Martial Uncle Lu can no longer delay the matter. The meeting is being held tomorrow. If Martial Uncle Han doesn’t come...”
“What’s going on, everyone?” At that moment, a soft voice was clearly heard throughout the hall.
When Lu Luo heard this, he wore a face of delight.
Chapter 756: Old Devi
l Cloudpart
Soon after those words echoed through the hall, Han Li suddenly appeared at the entrance wearing a calm expression.
Just as the Core Formation cultivators bowed towards Han Li, Lu Luo stood up with a smile, “Junior Martial Brother Han, you’ve finally left seclusion. This is great!”
Han Li smiled and said, “I wasn’t completely finished. I planned on continuing my seclusion, but I felt worried about the matter of the Moulan and thought I’d take a look. It seems I’ve arrived at just the right time.”
“Hehe! It seems Junior Martial Brother Han has also heard our Martial Nephews. There had been many people that had wished to see you recently. There isn’t much to say about the others, but the three great cultivators personally invited you to attend a high echelon meeting. Junior Martial Brother Han, you must participate in it. Our Drifting Cloud Sect had mustered a majority of its power, and I don’t wish for our sects disciples to die in the masses. Junior Martial Brother Han must go and listen to how they’ve made arrangements in the war, and put my worries to ease.” Once Lu Luo finished speaking, he wore a solemn expression.
“Yes, since I now know of this matter, I will be certain to pay them a visit tomorrow. I’ve long wished to speak with the three great cultivators. I am looking forward to seeing them tomorrow.” Han Li’s reply was much to Lu Luo’s satisfaction, and they chatted about what had happened in the past two months.
Han Li frowned upon hearing Lu Luo’s words. “The spell warriors have begun to attack the border fortresses?”
Lu Luo’s smile faded away and he said with a deep tone, “That’s right. To tell the truth, this had only started in the past four days. Although this hadn’t caused many deaths, it is a sign that the Moulan had already finished their preparations.”
Han Li blinked and slowly said, “The Moulan had prepared themselves so quickly. How well have our forces made arrangements? Surely they must’ve made much progress.”
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 405