Han Li appraised the ball of light in silence with tightly furrowed brows.
He had been slightly surprised by the power of the ball of light, but what he was most interested in was the type of energy that had formed this object.
Han Li had forcibly purchased this piece of Foreign Devilish Metal not just because he had seen something within the piece of metal using his spirit eyes, but also because he had been struck by an extremely profound feeling in his spiritual sense.
This was definitely an extremely valuable item, and it seemed to be very important to him as well.
At his current cultivation base, Han Li naturally took these spiritual signals very seriously. These signals very rarely appeared, and they weren't guaranteed to always be correct, but they certainly couldn't be ignored.
Even though Han Li had only briefly inspected the bead with his spiritual sense before withdrawing it in alarm, he still did manage to sense some things. However, if he wanted to be able to derive some useful information, then further examination was required.
However, the energy that the ball of light was formed by was very special, and it seemed that normal spiritual sense would immediately become extremely violent upon coming into contact with it. Thus, things were made a lot more problematic.
All of a sudden, Han Li took a deep breath as a solemn look appeared on his face. At the same time, he activated both his Great Development Technique and Spirit Refinement Technique, upon which his spiritual sense swelled drastically.
Immediately thereafter, blue light flashed within his eyes, and a series of almost transparent threads of light shot forth out of his glabella, then vanished into the ball of light in a flash.
Those were substantial manifestations of his spiritual sense, and there were over 100 of them, clearly indicating that Han Li's spiritual sense had reached an incredibly fearsome level.
In the instant that these threads vanished into the ball of light, it shuddered slightly and began to display signs of instability again.
Han Li immediately injected more magic power into the golden runes surrounding the ball of light upon seeing this, and they formed a golden net that converged violently amid a flash of golden light.
As a result, the ball of light instantly settled down again.
Han Li heaved a faint sigh of relief, then closed his eyes as he began to carefully examine the ball of light.
Moments later, a dumbstruck look appeared on his face, only to be immediately replaced by an expression of ecstasy. However, this elated expression only lingered for a brief moment before it was replaced by a befuddled and hesitant one.
Han Li made a hand seal, and all of the translucent threads were instantly withdrawn. After that, he slowly opened his eyes, but his brows were tightly furrowed.
"It's incredible to think that there's something in this world that can completely fuse devilish Qi and spiritual Qi. This is perfect for my Provenance True Devil Arts! I should be able to easily convert it into magic power for myself without even having to refine it. Could it really be that simple? I don't recall ever seeing any records of something like this, either," Han Li murmured to himself in a hesitant manner.
"So be it, I'll give it a try first."
Han Li soon made his decision, and he began to chant something while making a series of hand seals, then suddenly extended a finger toward the ball of light.
The bumpy surface of the ball of light immediately began to transform, and in the end, an egg-sized section was extracted amid a flash of light.
Before this extracted section could explode, Han Li's chanting abruptly ceased, and his hand shot forth like lightning to grab onto it, following which he immediately unleashed his Provenance True Devil Arts.
A golden projection that was around 10 feet tall appeared behind him, and it gradually became clearer.
At the same time, the grey ball of light in his grasp began to shrink at a rate that was discernible to the naked eye, and it completely vanished after the span of just a few breaths.
"As expected, the true essence within my body has been slightly enhanced. If It were to absorb this entire thing, the enhancements would be phenomenal!" An elated and excited look appeared in Han Li's eyes.
"What exactly is this thing? It clearly has no impurities whatsoever, so how did so many impurities appear following the conversion process?" Han Li murmured to himself as he extended a finger, and a wisp of barely visible green Qi surged out of his fingertip.
Chapter 2034: Devilish Auction
Han Li appraised the wisp of green Qi for a while before a burst of silver flames erupted out of the same fingertip to envelop it.
However, the green Qi remained completely unaffected by the silver flames regardless of how violently they burned.
Han Li's expression changed slightly upon seeing this, and the silver flames instantly dissipated. He then flicked his finger, and the wisp of green Qi shot forth as a streak of green light, piercing through the light barriers on the opposing wall with ease.
Han Li faltered slightly upon seeing this. He was only trying to flick the green Qi away, so he certainly didn't think that it would be this powerful.
All of a sudden, spatial fluctuations erupted, and the green streak of light shot forth directly toward Han Li.
Han Li was naturally rather taken aback by this development, but his response was very fast. Golden light flashed from his hand as he caught the oncoming streak of green light, but his expression immediately darkened upon opening his fingers, only to find that the green light was nowhere to be found.
The green light had completely disregarded his immensely powerful body and burrowed into his hand without any impediment.
Han Li immediately inspected his own internal condition using his spiritual sense, only to find that the wisp of green Qi was currently situated in his dantian in a completely calm and stable manner.
Han Li's brows furrowed slightly as he swept up the green using an enormous burst of true essence, then forced it out of his body again.
On this occasion, the green Qi was only expelled several feet out of his body before shooting back in a flash.
The true essence enveloping it was unable to impede it in the slightest!
Han Li's heart jolted as he instantly conjured up a golden barrier of protective spiritual light, and at the same time, blue light flashed within his eyes as he stared intently at the oncoming streak of green light.
The green light pierced through his protective spiritual light as if it didn't even exist, then immediately returned to his dantian, leaving him completely bewildered.
After that, no matter how he tried to expel the green Qi, everything ended in failure, and he couldn't destroy or refine it, either.
The wisp of green Qi seemed to have identified his body as a home; regardless of how far away it was forced out or what kind of restriction was used on it, it would instantly disappear before returning to his body.
After failing to trap the green Qi even with the Purple Word Cauldron, Han Li's expression had become very strained.
It didn't seem like this green Qi was causing any harm to his body, but how could he rest knowing that there was a type of foreign energy residing in his body?
The fact that the green Qi was able to return to his body with unerring accuracy every single time indicated that it had somehow locked onto his soul. In that case, there was only one more thing that he could try.
Having made his decision, Han Li made a hand seal and began to chant an incantation, upon which a golden projection with three heads and six arms appeared behind him.
The projection then took on a substantial form, following which Han Li let loose a low cry and laid a hand onto the top of his own head.
A dull thump rang out as a ball of black light vanished into the golden body in a flash; it was none other than his second Nascent Soul!
Immediately thereafter, Han Li pointed a finger toward the golden body, then drew upon his true essence to expel the wisp of green Q
i once again.
On this occasion, it vanished into the second Nascent Soul within the golden body, and situated itself within the Nascent Soul's dantian again.
There the wisp of green Qi remained without displaying any sign of returning to Han Li's body, and he heaved a long sigh of relief upon seeing this.
However, he didn't stop there. After that, he flicked a series of incantation seals toward the golden body with his fingers, and the second Nascent Soul appeared to be seated in a completely still manner within the golden body, but the devilish Qi within its body was surging and forming a series of black runes. These runes enveloped the wisp of green Qi and instantly formed a black crystalline ball to seal the green Qi.
The golden body then crumbled away and vanished to reveal the second Nascent Soul, which wore a calm expression as it joined its palms before bringing them apart again.
The black crystalline ball emerged, and was caught by the second Nascent Soul, following which it vanished into Han Li's body as a ball of black light.
Han Li made a brief assessment of the second Nascent Soul's condition, and he was quite relieved to see that it had remained unharmed.
Even though he couldn't completely expel the green Qi, it shouldn't pose him any issues now that it was under the second Nascent Soul's control. Once he found a way to eradicate or refine it in the future, he'd be able to take care of it permanently.
However, during this period of time, it would be wise for him to use his second Nascent Soul as little as possible in case something were to happen with that green Qi.
After that, Han Li turned his attention back to the ball of light that was enshrouded within the golden runes, and he discovered that he had absorbed less than a tenth of it, but his true essence had been enhanced to the same extent as seven or eight years of arduous cultivation.
If he were to convert this entire ball of light into true essence, it would be able to save him over 100 years of cultivation, so he certainly couldn't give up on it.
After a brief pause for contemplation, Han Li swept a sleeve through the air to release an antiquated shimmering golden vial.
The vial was tipped over, and a burst of five-colored light was released out of its opening, which sucked the grey ball of light into the vial.
The vial then flew up Han Li's sleeve and was carefully stowed away. He had already decided that he was going to do his best to search for more of these crystalline beads in the Elder Devil Realm. If he could find enough of those beads and address the issue of the green Qi, perhaps he would be able to reach the pinnacle of the late-Body Integration Stage in a very short time. If he could do that, then that would be a brilliant opportunity.
Han Li was growing rather excited as he thought about this, and he raised a hand to pick up the crystalline bead again. After injecting his spiritual sense into it, he discovered that it was completely empty, and all of the peculiar energy that it had contained had disappeared.
After a brief hesitation, he stowed the bead into his storage bracelet along with the two halves of the piece of Foreign Devilish Metal.
Perhaps he would be able to use these items in the future to find the true origins of that grey ball of light.
The grey ball of light had the incredible property of being able to be directly converted into true essence, but aside from people like Han Li, who were using special cultivation arts such as the Provenance True Devil Arts, there were very few people who could actually take advantage of this type of energy. On top of that, not only did one have to be using a special cultivation art of this nature, they had to possess the ability to sense this type of energy. In Han Li's case, it was a combination of his spirit eye ability and the profound feeling he had been struck by in his spiritual sense.
Han Li was very pleased with the rewards he had reaped, and after completing his examination of everything, he began to meditate.
He had decided to scour all of the shops in Blood Crow City during the next few days to see if he could reap some other rewards, and also to see if he could find more of these crystalline beads in other pieces of Foreign Devilish Metal.
An uneventful night passed by, and the next morning, Han Li emerged from the inn in a calm manner before slowly visiting the shops along the nearest street.
Blood Crow City couldn't compare with an actual city such as Deep Heaven City, but it still had thousands of shops, and after two days, he had only managed to visit less than half of them.
He had reaped many unexpected rewards during this time, and had also found some pieces of Foreign Devilish Metal, but didn't discover any other crystalline beads like the one he had found.
However, Han Li wasn't all that disheartened by this. After all, something that could directly enhance his true essence was bound to be very rare, and it would be quite strange if he could find such things in this city in large quantities.
At the same time, Han Li had gathered some information about the imminent auction that was going to be held in the city.
This was a customary biannual auction held in Blood Crow City, and during every auction, the high-grade devilish beings who were passing through or staying in the city would bring out some precious items to be auctioned.
In particular, those who had hunted for devilish beasts on the grassland would all sell the devilish beast materials that weren't useful to them during the Blood Crow City auction, then purchase useful treasures and pills with those earnings. After that, they would venture into the grassland again to continue hunting devilish beasts, thereby saving a lot of time.
Due to the emergence of this beast tide, the number of high-grade devilish beings in the city was far higher than normal, so the quantity and quality of the auction items were also going to be significantly higher than prior auctions.
Apparently, there were even going to be several Divine Devilish Treasures and other legendary treasures and materials being sold.
Han Li was aturally quite interested and was planning to attend this auction, both to see if there was anything that would catch his eye, as well as to sell off the redundant devilish treasures in his collection for some devil stones.
Even though these devil stones would have next to no effect on his cultivation, he was planning to stay in the Elder Devil Realm for up to several decades, so he naturally had to acquire some of these stones.
The auction was held three days after that, giving him just enough time to scour through most of the shops in the city.
The auction was held in a massive hall in a corner of Blood Crow City, and Han Li arrived in a cloak that concealed his entire body.
He had also altered his own aura, and after handing over a few devil stones to the devilish guards at the entrance, he entered the auction.
The hall was circular in shape, and it was shaped like a tiered funnel from top to bottom.
Aside from a series of round azure stone seats in the hall, there was only a black rectangular stone platform at the center. There were diagrams of unidentifiable beasts engraved onto the walls, and in no more than 15 minutes, the entire hall was completely filled by around 3,000 to 4,000 high-grade devilish beings.
Many of these high-grade devilish beings were also wearing large cloaks or had concealed their features with devilish Qi, so Han Li wasn't looking out of place at all.
After a short while, when there were virtually no empty seats in the entire hall, a small door on the bottom level was opened, and a humanoid figure emerged from within before arriving on the rectangular stone platform.
All of the chatter in the venue immediately died down.
Chapter 2035: Dark Blood Five-colored Bells
This was a heavily wrinkled devilish elderly man with a dark complexion, and he strode over to the stone platform with a calm expression.
He cast his gaze through the surrounding area, and a fearsome aura immediately erupted from his body, drawing awe and veneration from many of the weaker devilish beings present.
This elderly man was at the pinnacle of the
late-Spatial Tempering Stage, so he was only one step away from the Body Integration Stage.
In a place like Blood Crow City, a powerful being of this caliber was truly very formidable.
"I am Yue Liantian, one of the elders of Blood Crow City; I'm sure many of the fellow daoists present know of me. I was invited by the owner of this place to host the auction, and I ask that all of you abide by the rules of this auction. Otherwise, I'll be forced to step in. These eight fellow daoists are the guards who will be maintaining order during this auction. With their presence, I'm sure this auction won't have any safety issues," the elderly man said before clapping his hands together, and eight mid-Spatial Tempering Stage devilish beings rose up from the front row of seats, then positioned themselves around the stone platform in an expressionless manner.
A stir immediately ran through the crowd at the sight of these devilish beings.
It was quite clear that they were quite renowned in Blood Crow City, and many people were appraising them with awe and veneration in their eyes.
Of course, eight Spatial Tempering Stage beings weren't going to draw any reaction from Han Li, and he was currently scanning his gaze through the crowd to see if the Long Family patriarch and the others were also in attendance.
There were potentially devilish lords in attendance as well, so Han Li hadn't released his enormous spiritual sense. Instead, he was only using his spirit eye ability to see if there were any devilish beings in suspicious disguises present, but after scouring through the crowd for a while, he didn't discover anything amiss.
Could it be that none of the others had come to attend this auction? That was quite strange.
Come to think of, following their separation, Han Li hadn't encountered any of his companions in the city. Regardless of whether it was the Long Family patriarch or everyone else, all of them seemed to be running secretive errands of their own.
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 1173