Light suddenly flashed from two of the projection's three blurry faces, and they instantly became clearer as both of them took on Han Li's set of ordinary facial features.
Golden light was flashing in the eyes on those two faces, and both of them wore grim expressions. For some reason, the final head remained quite blurry and indistinct, making it impossible for one to glean its facial features.
One of the faces let loose a loud roar, and the four true spirit projections faltered before flying toward the massive golden projections.
Spiritual light flashed, and all four projections disappeared in the blink of an eye.
The original golden projection shuddered before swinging its six arms through the air, and its body began to expand drastically amid swirling golden light once again.
Within moments, it had grown significantly taller than even the massive mountain beneath it, and it was almost able to reach up and extend its hands directly into the light within the cloud ring.
Right at this moment, bursts of Buddhist chants rang out from one of the heads that had taken on Han Li's facial features, following which all six arms pointed up into the sky in unison.
The cloud ring that had become completely motionless suddenly sprang to life again. Spiritual light flashed, and the giant cloud ring descended soundlessly, encircling the entire massive projection within, descending all the way down to the projection's waist before finally stopping.
It then began to rotate around the projection's body.
A peculiar scene then ensued!
The five-colored light within the cloud ring surged into the projection in a frenzy, and as a result, the body of the projection took on a vibrant rainbow hue as opposed to its original golden color.
During this process, the projection's body was trembling uncontrollably as agonized expressions appeared on both sets of its faces.
It was as if the more five-colored light was being injected into its body, the more pain it had to suffer.
Furthermore, the rate of influx of this five-colored light was quite astonishing.
After just a few moments, all of the light within the cloud ring had disappeared without a trace. The projection then let loose a loud cry, and the white cloud ring around it also disintegrated into hundreds of balls of white light that hovered in the nearby area.
At this moment, the three heads opened their mouths in unison to blast forth bursts of golden light that swept these balls of light into their stomach.
After doing all that, the pain on the faces of the projections eased significantly, but its body suddenly began to shrank.
In the blink of an eye, the mountainous projection had transformed into a normal-sized human being with layers of five-colored light over its body.
The humanoid figure sat down in the air above the mountain with its legs crossed while making a hand seal, and he hovered there in a completely motionless manner.
The astonishing spiritual pressure and phenomena had all disappeared, and it was as if everything had gone back to normal.
Only then did the beasts and demon beasts in the distance slowly return to their senses.
The normal beasts struggled to their feet before letting loose a few panicked cries and fleeing back to their nests and lairs as quickly as they could, not even daring to sneak a glance back at the massive mountain.
All of the demon beasts also fled into the distance as if they'd just survived an extremely perilous ordeal.
The trio of mid-grade demon beasts were faring slightly better than the other beasts and demon beasts, yet they were also only able to barely remain standing. At this moment, the golden ape asked in an anxious voice, "What happened? Did he succeed?"
The cow-headed beast seemed to be the most knowledgeable among the trio, and it said in a slow voice, "I don't know. The breakthrough process most likely still hasn't concluded yet. The phenomenon that we witnessed earlier was just him absorbing the nearby world's origin Qi. Everything appears to have settled down now, but don't be fooled; this is the key moment for his breakthrough."
The three-headed giant python and the golden ape were both slightly surprised to hear this as they cast their eyes toward the giant mountain again.
"Let's go. It'll take him quite a while to break through his bottleneck. At least a few days will pass and we might even have to wait months for the final result, so if we stay here for too long, we might irk him and accomplish the opposite of what we intended," the cow-headed beast continued.
The other two demon beasts' hearts stirred upon hearing this, and they immediately nodded in agreement.
Thus, the three demon beasts flew away into the opposite direction as gusts of demonic winds.
After a while, they disappeared without a trace into the distance.
Meanwhile, the humanoid figure sitting in mid-air atop the giant mountain had his eyes closed the entire time, as if he'd seen nothing and knew nothing.
One day, two days, five days, ten days...
Two months passed by, yet the humanoid figure hovering above the mountain remained completely stationary.
The only difference was that the five-colored light barrier around him was growing more and more dazzling.
The mid-grade demon beasts had snuck back to check on Han Li on a few occasions during this time, and all of them found this to be quite intriguing.
At the same time, they were all quite perplexed by what was happening.
During this period, there were the occasional beasts that had forgotten about the phenomena that had taken place here not long ago and ventured within 50 kilometers of the giant mountain.
All of them then disappeared amid a burst of white mist.
A gargantuan restriction had been set up around the entire massive mountain, and the closer one drew to the center of the restriction, the more powerful it seemed to become.
After another half a month, the humanoid figure within the light barrier suddenly shuddered, and the five-colored light around his body swirled before he finally opened his eyes.
A long cry then erupted from his mouth.
The cry didn't contain any power or abilities; it was merely an expression of elation.
Moments later, the cry cut off, and the humanoid figure rose to his feet before swinging both arms through the air, and the five-colored light barrier around him disintegrated into specks of spiritual light.
Immediately thereafter, he made a hand seal, and a pair of wings appeared on his back before he disappeared following a loud thunderclap.
Chapter 1529: Refinement
Deep within the giant mountain, an azure and white arc of lightning flashed within the secret chamber of the cave abode, and Han Li appeared with an elated look on his face.
With the assistance of the True Toad Spirit Liquid complementing the arduous cultivation that he'd engaged in for over a century, he had finally reached the pinnacle of the Deity Transformation Stage and also completely refined the wisp of spiritual sense within the Tian Peng Relic. Thus, he obtained the methods to refine the true dragon and heavenly phoenix true spirit bloods.
Thus, he naturally immediately fused those two types of spirit blood into his body, thereby mastering the true dragon and heavenly phoenix transformations.
At that point, both Han Li's body and magic power had reached an incredible level that stood at the very pinnacle of what was possible for Deity Transformation cultivators.
At the same time, the Azure Shifting Fruit core had also been nurtured into several Azure Shifting Fruit trees.
With this fruit as the main ingredient, Han Li finally refined over 10 Heavenshifting Pills after several failures.
With everything ready, Han Li finally prepared to progress to the Spatial Tempering Stage with the assistance of his three Black Flame Pills and three Heavenshifting Pills.
During the process, Han Li had been quite lucky in that two of his three Heavenshifting Pills took effect, enhancing the effects of the two accompanying Black Flame Pills by 20% to 30%.
Under such optimistic circumstances, Han Li spent several months and was finally able to activate the world's origin Qi in a vast area around him before injecting it into his own body, thereby progressing to the Spatial Tempering Stage in what was an extremely smooth and flawless breakthrough.
Both his magic power and spiritual sense had more than doubled as a result of his breakthrough, but that wasn't the most significant difference that Han Li was experiencing.
At this moment, he was hovering in mid-air within his secret chamber with his eyes closed, sensing everything around him.
In the past, the world's origin Qi had been rather indistinct and elusive to him, but it had since become extremely clear, as if he could gather it in his palm and grab it like a physical object.
Seeing as that was the case, he really did raise a hand and make a grabbing motion.
A spluttering sound rang out as five streaks of translucent light shot forth from his fingertips. Immediately thereafter, specks of spiritual light flashed in the nearby area, and countless rice-sized specks of five-colored light appeared, then disappeared into the streaks of translucent light in a flash.
Brilliant light then erupted from those streaks of light, following which a massive translucent five-colored hand appeared out of thin air.
"I see! After progressing to the Spatial Tempering Stage, my control of the world's origin Qi has improved significantly compared to when I was at the Deity Transformation Stage," Han Li murmured to himself.
At the Deity Transformation Stage, he could only just barely sense the world's origin Qi and use it for extremely basic functions.
Only now had he truly mastered the world's origin Qi. With this significantly improved mastery of the world's origin Qi, any ability or technique that he unleashed would become a lot more powerful than before. The abilities that relied solely on borrowing the power of the world's origin Qi would presumably become even more fearsome, perhaps even enhanced to several times their original power.
Han Li opened his eyes as a pleased look appeared on his face. He swept an arm through the air, and the massive translucent hand before him immediately disappeared.
Han Li then slowly descended onto the ground below.
He cast his gaze toward a corner of the secret chamber, which was where the Divine Essencefused Mountain had been sitting for over 100 years.
During this time, Han Li had also placed the other two stone blocks into it in succession, and it was about time that all three blocks were completely refined.
With that in mind, Han Li waved a hand toward the mountain without any hesitation.
A loud rumbling rang out, and the small black mountain only rose up into the air before traveling toward him after a burst of violent tremors ran through the entire secret chamber.
Han Li spread open his five fingers, and the small black mountain instantly stopped right in front of him.
He carefully inspected the mountain to find that its appearance hadn't changed in the slightest.
However, the fact that he could draw it so easily to himself was an indication that the stone blocks had indeed completely fused as one with the mountain.
Otherwise, even with the significant improvements in his magic power, there was no way that he'd be able to control it so easily.
He nodded before casting an incantation seal toward the small mountain, and azure light flashed as the incantation seal disappeared as soon as it came into contact with the mountain.
Immediately thereafter, silver light flashed, and a ball of silver flames emerged from the mountain before transforming into a silver Fire Raven.
It was none other than the Spirit Engulfing Fire Raven!
The Fire Raven had clearly shrunk significantly, and it appeared to be rather feeble.
It was quite clear that refining the stone blocks of over 100 years had depleted a lot of its essential power.
Han Li's heart throbbed slightly upon seeing this, and he pointed a finger toward the Fire Raven, following which it immediately flew through the air before disappearing into his body in a flash.
Han Li would have to nurture it in his body for a while for it to recover.
A smile appeared on Han Li's face as he cast another incantation seal toward the small black mountain.
The mountain revolved before disappearing amid a flash of grey light.
In the next instant, Han Li flipped over his inky black hand so that the palm was facing upward, and black light flashed as a miniature mountain appeared in the air above his palm before descending straight downward.
The miniature mountain then disappeared in a flash, and at the same time, the image of a small silver mountain appeared on the back of his hand.
Han Li had sealed the Divine Essencefused Mountain back into his hand again.
However, his expression then abruptly changed drastically as his outstretched arm plummeted at an alarming rate, pitching his body forward as well.
"Crap!"
Han Li hurriedly bent his knees to absorb his momentum while his other hand shot forth to catch his plummeting hand.
He then swayed several times on the spot before finally managing to right himself.
In the instant that the Divine Essencefused Mountain was sealed into his hand, his arm had become impossibly heavy, and even with his immense strength, he was still almost thrown forward onto the ground, and even now, he was only barely managing to stay upright.
Han Li was naturally quite bewildered by this development, but he quickly understood what had happened.
Even though he'd already used the Hundred Meridian Refinement Mantra to completely fuse the Divine Essencefused Mountain with his hand, the newly added stone blocks were yet to be refined using this mantra, thus resulting in its immense weight being unaccounted for.
It appeared that if he wanted to use the mountain as easily as he could in the past, he'd have to refine it with the mantra again.
With that in mind, Han Li immediately began the process. He sat down with his legs crossed, carrying his arm with his other hand as golden light flashed above his head. An azure Nascent Soul abruptly emerged from the top of his head, wearing a solemn expression with golden and azure light shimmering around its body.
The Nascent Soul immediately made a hand seal before opening its little mouth to expel a wisp of azure flames, which struck the hand in which the mountain was sealed.
The palm was inky-black and instantly enshrouded by the flames unleashed by the Nascent Soul.
Han Li closed his eyes while golden light flashed from behind him, and the Provenance True Devil Projection appeared once again. It was also seated with its legs crossed while making hand seals, but this projection was clearly a lot more substantial than what Han Li had been capable of summoning in the past.
From a distance, the projection appeared to be a real golden statue.
Thus, Han Li used the Hundred Meridian Refinement Mantra to refine the Divine Essencefused Mountain again, and that took the better part of a year. Thankfully, it had already been refined once before and this process was only to refine the stone blocks that had been melted into the mountain. Otherwise, it would've undoubtedly taken a lot more time.
On this day, the flames erupting from the Nascent Soul's mouth ceased, following which spiritual light flashed from its body, and it disappeared on the spot.
Han Li withdrew his hand seal and concluded the refinement process.
It was impossible to complete the refinement process in such a short time, but at the very least, his arm was no longer unbearably heavy. As for the rest of the process, that would consist of the mountain slowly being assimilated with his hand again, and that would be an extremely lengthy process.
Han Li flexed his arm and set it through a range of motions without any difficulty, and a pleased look appeared on his face.
Right at this moment, Han Li suddenly furrowed his brows as he rose to his feet before making his way over to the door.
The heavy stone door
opened of its own accord, and Han Li swayed before appearing outside the secret chamber.
There was a miniature black humanoid figure hovering in mid-air outside, appraising Han Li with a smile.
It was none other than his second Nascent Soul.
Han Li didn't say anything as he made a hand seal, and the second Nascent Soul disappeared into his head as a streak of black light.
Thus, Han Li was able to instantly get a grasp on what had happened during the past century.
"Those demon beasts want to see me?" A peculiar look appeared on Han Li's face as he opened his eyes.
He didn't delay any longer as he immediately strode toward the hall.
After a few turns, Han Li appeared at the entrance to the hall, and the sound of conversation could be heard coming from within.
Han Li raised an eyebrow before making his way into the hall, and the conversation immediately ceased as everyone in the hall turned to him with dumbstruck expressions on their faces.
Han Li swept his gaze across the hall to discover four demon beasts. They were none other than the cow-headed beast, the golden ape, the three-headed giant python, and the massive demonic pig with whom he'd exchanged Woodbud Flowers with.
On the main seat within the hall sat a smiling azure-robed man; it was a second Han Li!
As soon as the seated "Han Li" saw Han Li entering the room, he rose to his feet with a serious expression before extending a deep bow.
"Congratulations on your successful breakthrough, Master!"
"You've been working quite hard as well during this period of time, I see!"
Han Li had already learned everything from the second Nascent Soul, so he wasn't very surprised by what he was witnessing. He merely nodded before waving a hand toward "Han Li".
"I've only done what's expected of me, Master. However, we have an important matter on our hands that will need to be attended to by Master in person," "Han Li" replied in a respectful manner before turning to the flabbergasted demon beasts with an amused smile.
Brilliant black light then flashed from his body, and he instantly transformed into a small monkey that was around half a foot tall before springing toward Han Li.
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 864