However, this mysterious cultivator had a set of extremely lofty standards, and there were very few items of that nature that actually appealed to him. Furthermore, he came and left extremely quickly, altering his appearance and attire as he traveled from one place to the next. If he set his sights on an item, he would either forcibly purchase it or bypass any restriction guarding the item before disappearing without a trace.
The extent of everyone's knowledge about this mysterious cultivator was that he was unfathomably powerful, and even Nascent Soul cultivators were like powerless infants in the face of his astounding might. Thankfully, this mysterious cultivator was only interested in collecting treasures, and refrained from attacking people unless it was unavoidable.
As such, even though the sects and powers that had lost those items were extremely unwilling to part with them, they could only concede to their bad luck, and none of them dared to try and track down this unfathomably powerful being.
In contrast, normal cultivators were completely oblivious to the existence of this mysterious cultivator.
Thus, one year flew by after another.
One day, 70 years later, on the peak of a nameless mountain, a mysterious cultivator stood with a blank expression while two elderly men glowered at him from the air above.
The mysterious cultivator was a middle-aged scholar dressed in a set of inky-black robes.
The two elderly men facing him were an early-Nascent Soul cultivator and a mid-Nascent Soul cultivator respectively.
"I don't care who you are, but if you don't want to get hurt, then you better hand over the Shimmering Golden Ring that you stole. For you to be able to steal the ring despite all the restrictions we set around it indicates that you're at least a mid-Nascent Soul cultivator; why would you stoop to such a lowly act of thievery," an elderly man with bushy eyebrows interrogated in a cold voice.
The mysterious cultivator hadn't been traveling very quickly, so they were able to chase him down with ease. However, they were quite perplexed to find that they were unable to glean this man's cultivation base. As such, they refrained from attacking immediately, hoping to test him with their words first.
In response, the mysterious cultivator merely raised a hand and sent something flying toward the elderly man who had just spoken.
The latter faltered slightly before reflexively catching the object, only to find that it was a storage pouch.
A perplexed look appeared on his face.
"The Shimmering Golden Ring is very useful to me, so I'm willing to pay for it with the spirit stones in that pouch," the mysterious cultivator said in a flat and slightly coarse voice.
The elderly man was initially started by the immense number of spirit stones in the pouch, but a furious look then appeared on his face as he roared, "Nonsense! The Shimmering Golden Ring is the most important treasure of our sect! We won't sell it to you no matter how many spirit stones you offer!"
"In that case, I'm afraid I can't help you any further. I won't be returning this treasure," the mysterious cultivator continued in an indifferent voice.
"Hmph, then I'll just have to take back our treasure along with your life!" the other elderly man with a pair of slanted eyes harrumphed coldly. He then opened his mouth and blasted forth a streak of red light, which hurtled toward the mysterious cultivator's head at an alarming speed.
The man was clearly unwilling to return the treasure, so the mid-Nascent Soul cultivator was planning to take it back by force.
However, an incredible turn of events unfolded!
The mysterious cultivator didn't summon any treasures; he merely waved a hand through the air, and a burst of grey light swept up into the air.
As soon as the red light was struck by the grey light, the former immediately receded to reveal its true form, which was a small crimson sword that was several inches in length and shimmering with a cold light.
This sword was currently trapped within the grey light, seemingly having lost the ability to move.
The elderly man who had unleashed the flying sword was both shocked and enraged to discover that he had completley lost his connection with the sword. The elderly man beside him could see that something was amiss, and he immediately swept a sleeve through the air, letting loose a loud cry as a golden rectangular object was hurled forth.
The object swelled drastically in size, transforming into a massive golden brick that came crashing down viciously like a small mountain.
The mysterious cultivator seemed to be quite intrigued by the sight of this golden brick, and he slowly raised his other hand toward it.
An even larger burst of grey light swept forth, crashing directly into the golden brick.
The grey light had only just washed over the surface of the brick, upon which its spiritual light faded, and it rapidly shrank, having also lost the ability to move.
The mysterious cultivator then waved a hand through the air again, and both the crimson sword and the golden brick descended toward him.
The mid-Nascent Soul Stage elderly man was truly getting quite flustered now, and he immediately made a grabbing motion toward the mysterious cultivator.
A massive white hand abruptly appeared above the black-robed scholar before crashing down with devastating might. He was clearly trying to put an end to this mysterious cultivator's life!
However, the cultivator down below merely flicked a finger toward the massive white hand.
Golden light flashed, and a burst of sword Qi swept through the white palm, slicing it cleanly in half and reducing it to specks of white light that disintegrated into nothingness.
The mid-Nascent Soul Stage elderly man's face paled upon seeing this.
Meanwhile, the mysterious cultivator brandished the two treasures in his hands before looking up at the two elderly men with a cold expression.
"If you think I'm offering too many spirit stones, then I'll take these two treasures as well. Are you willing to make the exchange now?"
The elderly men's hearts sank in unison. It was completely incredible to them that this mysterious cultivator could take their treasures from them as if he were merely taking candy from a baby. Just what was that unfathomable grey light?
Neither of the elderly men dared to give a reply.
The mysterious cultivator chuckled upon seeing this before tossing the two treasures into the air and flying away as a streak of azure light.
The two elderly men faltered upon seeing this before hurriedly recovering their lost treasures. They then glanced at the streak of azure light in the distance before turning to look at one another.
After a while, the elderly man with bushy eyebrows hesitantly asked, "Senior Martial Brother, should we give chase?"
"Give chase? Do you want to die? He's clearly just spared our lives. If we continue to pester him, he might change his mind," the other elderly man heaved a resigned sigh.
"But the Shimmering Golden Ring is our sect's most important treasure! What are we going to tell the rest of the sect if we can't recover it?" The elderly man with bushy eyebrows was still unwilling to give up.
"We'll just tell the truth; we encountered someone far too powerful for us to oppose, so we had to let him go. This is the nature of the cultivation world. The strong can impose their will upon the weak as they please, and nothing can be done about it. Come to think of it, the Shimmering Golden Ring didn't always belong to our sect, either; our martial forefathers plundered it from another sect. We can only concede our bad luck now that it's been taken away from us as well. Let's go back. The sect still needs us, so we can't throw away our lives likes this." The mid-Nascent Soul Stage elderly man gave a wry smile before departing back the way they had come from.
The bushy-browed elderly man was rooted to the spot for a long while before heaving a resigned sigh as he also departed from the scene.
High up in the air a long distance away, the mysterious cultivator suddenly stopped after flying for tens of thousands of kilometers.
A se
ries of crackles and pops erupted throughout his joints as he grew taller by around an inch. At the same time, azure spiritual light surfaced over his face, warping his appearance into that of a young man with a set of ordinary features.
This man was none other than Han Li.
He rustled a sleeve and a golden ring abruptly appeared his hand. He gently waved the golden ring, and countless projections were summoned.
"Not bad. In terms of defensive ability alone, this treasure ranks among the top three that I've collected during these past years." A pleased smile appeared on Han Li's face.
"It's about time you went back, Fellow Daoist Han. Otherwise, you'll be in complete despair if the spatial node suddenly collapses before you get back," the voice of a small child chuckled from within his sleeve.
"There's no need to remind me of that, Fellow Daoist Endless Sky; I was just preparing to make a trip back to the island. I've obtained some treasures and secret techniques during these past years, but there are only about four of five that are actually useful. Most of them are very renowned, but they certainly don't live up their reputations; they'll be next to useless once I enter the spatial node." Han Li's expression darkened slightly as he spoke.
"That's rather overly critical of you, Fellow Daoist Han. You're comparing the normal ancient treasures of your human world to spirit treasures like your Eight Spirit Ruler, so they'll naturally be quite lackluster in contrast. In any case, they're better than nothing. Besides, during your travels, you've managed to derive more insights from that half-page of the Golden Jade Tome as well. Perhaps these things will be able to save your life in your time of need," the small child disagreed.
"Perhaps." Han Li gave an absentminded reply as he clenched the fingers on the hand hidden up one of his sleeves before releasing them again.
Unbeknownst to the Endless Sky Beast, the most significant acquisition he had made during the past years wasn't one of the treasures or secret techniques he had obtained, and nor was it the insights he had derived from the Golden Jade Tome. Instead, it was something else...
Chapter 1263: Returning to the Island
During these past few decades, Han Li would consume Dragon Scale Fruits, which he had prepared in his storage pouch in advance, at regular intervals. As such his strength had exceeded the upper limit of human cultivators a long time ago.
He had planted the Dragon Scale Fruit in the Devilfall Valley, and it was among the spirit medicines that the humanoid puppet had begun to deliver to the spatial pocket.
However, Han Li was didn't consume one of these fruits every single day. Instead, he had one every half a month. The medicinal effect of the fruit wasn't very strong, but if he didn't absorb the medicinal effect in time, it would slowly build up within his body. If this trend were to continue for several decades, his body wouldn't be able to handle the backlash, even though he had mastered the third layer of Brightjade Arts.
The Golden Wyrm King was only able to consume one Dragon Scale Fruit per day as wyrms possessed far more powerful bodies than normal demon beasts.
Due to the fact that Han Li had spent most of his time in seclusion preparing for a breakthrough to the Deity Transformation Stage, he wasn't able to dedicate much time to refining this fruit; only around a dozen years or so. After that, he stopped and began to focus wholeheartedly on cultivating his Azure Essence Sword Art instead.
Prior to arriving at the Five Dragon Seas on this occasion, Han Li had deliberately filled an entire storage pouch with ripe Dragon Scale Fruits.
As such, he had a steady supply of this fruit during his journey throughout the human world in the past few decades, and he was able to cultivate the Bone Tempering Art that he had unintentionally obtained, thereby allowing him to refine the medicinal effect of these fruits.
As a result, Han Li was astonished to find that the Dragon Scale Fruits and the Bone Tempering Art created an extraordinarily effective combination. The Bone Tempering Art had initially to be quite difficult to cultivate, but with the assistance of the Dragon Scale Fruits, Han Li was able to make rapid progress, mastering several layers during the short span of a few decades.
If he were to inspect his internal condition now, he would find that not only had his bones become noticeably thicker, they had also taken on a faint golden hue, similar to the color of his skin when he activated his Brightjade Arts.
In terms of strength, he was now able to easily lift massive rocks that weighed several tons without using any magic power.
What came as even more of a pleasant surprise to Han Li was that consumption of Dragon Scale Fruits also seemed to be quite conducive to the cultivation of the Brightjade Art. As such, as he was cultivating the Bone Tempering Art, he mastered the fourth layer of the Brightjade Art as well.
Due to this observation, he speculated that the Bone Tempering Art most likely really was somehow related to the Sacred Provenance Plate; perhaps it had even been created based on the Brightjade Art.
Otherwise, this cultivation art wouldn't act in such a complementary manner with the Brightjade Art.
After mastering the fourth layer of the Brightjade Art, he was able to cultivate several of its accompanying Buddhist secret techniques. When used in conjunction with the Brightjade Art, these secret techniques were extraordinarily powerful, and further contributed to enhancing his combat prowess.
While consuming the Dragon Scale Fruits, he would always conceal the Heavenvoid Cauldron temporarily to prevent the Endless Sky Beast from discovering this secret.
Otherwise, it would be very suspicious if he were able to bring out Dragon Scale Fruits on a regular basis.
"So once full mastery of the Divine Essencefused Light is achieved, it becomes grey. That's rather strange. I thought that it would become five-colored light. Now that you've achieved full mastery of the Divine Essencefused Light, I can use its five-elemental power to subdue five-elemental treasures. As your cultivation base continues to improve, as will the power of your Divine Essencefused Light, so there won't be any need to specifically cultivate it. This is quite a rare ability and even cultivators of a higher level will find it quite difficult to handle this power," the small child suddenly remarked.
"I didn't think that the Divine Essencefused Light would turn into such a monotonous color, either. While I was cultivating it in the past, it did indeed produce five-colored light, and it only changed into this color after I reached full mastery." Han Li was also stroking his chin with a rather perplexed look on his face.
He had been wondering about this for a long time, yet never articulated this internal query. Now that the small child was raising this question, his own confusion also rose to the surface.
"Hehe, this cultivation method was created by a cultivator of this world, so it's not really surprising that it can undergo some strange transformations," the small child said with a nonchalant chuckle.
"That's true. As long as the power of this Divine Esencefused Light isn't hampered in any way, it doesn't really matter that it's color has changed." Han Li nodded with a smile in agreement.
"Hehe, that's the best way to think about it. Looks like you're really planning to ascend to the Spirit Realm soon, Brother Han. In that case, I won't be returning to the Five Dragon Seas with you. Let's part ways here." As soon as the small child's voice trailed off, a ball of azure light shot forth from within Han Li's sleeve, revealing itself to be none other than his Heavenvoid Cauldron.
A crisp ringing sound erupted from the cauldron, following which the lid was lifted slightly. A burst of grey Qi flew out, transforming into a small child that was several feet tall.
"You can already leave the Heavenvoid Cauldron? I thought you'd still require some more time." Han Li was rather surprised to see this.
"I've been working on the restriction that's bound me this entire time as well, so the remnants of the restriction is no longer enough to confine me," the small child replied.
Han Li recomposed his surprised expression before asking, "I see. Are you
planning to stay here, Fellow Daoist Endless Sky? Why don't you go back to the Heaventide Prairies or go somewhere else? This continent is actually nothing more than a massive island, so it really can't compare to other places with cultivation foundations."
"I'm just an avatar of my true body in the Spirit Realm, so there's no need for me to cultivate too quickly; cultivation resources are completely pointless to me right now. I've decided to stay here on this continent because I've discovered the aura of one of my brethren recently. Even though their bloodline isn't very pure, I've still decided to grace them with my presence," the small child explained calmly.
Han Li faltered slightly upon hearing this before a smile appeared on his face, and he said, "I see. I must congratulate you then, Fellow Daoist."
"Haha, I didn't think that I would encounter one of my brethren here in this human world. In this case, I won't accompany you on your journey any longer, Fellow Daoist Han. I'll be taking my leave now."The small child cupped his fist in a salute before transforming into a burst of greyish-white Qi and disappearing into the distance.
He had left without so much a single trace of hesitation.
Han Li was rooted to the spot for a long while as he gazed into distance in the direction that the demonic Qi had disappeared in.
After a long while, Han Li murmured to himself, "With this demon beast here, this continent's peaceful days are most likely over. That doesn't have anything to do with me, though."
After that, he also disappeared into the distance as a streak of azure light.
Two years later, a streak of azure light flew over the misty seas of the Five Dragon Seas, disappearing into the mist in the blink of an eye.
When Han Li appeared in the sky above the island, around a dozen or so cultivators immediately emerged to meet him.
Han Li faltered slightly as a cold light flashed through his eyes, but his expression immediately eased at the sight of a familiar lithe and graceful figure.
"You've finally come back, Han Li." The alluring figure flew toward Han Li, reaching him in the blink of an eye as she appraised him with a smile so beautiful that everything in this world paled in comparison.
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