The Artifact Spirit’s Disdain

As soon as he was far from Yuan Yao, Han Li became restless. He took out the Void Heaven Cauldron, unable to contain his eagerness to examine the treasures inside as he flew.

But before long, Han Li felt like vomiting blood.

No matter what method he tried, the cauldron’s lid seemed fused to its body, cast as a single piece. He could not open it by even a sliver.

Whether he frantically poured spiritual power into the cauldron, or, in rage and frustration, directly bombarded its walls with various magic treasures, the cauldron merely flickered with a trace of blue light a few times, remaining utterly unmoved.

Han Li’s heart sank.

For now, he could enlarge or shrink the Void Heaven Cauldron, but that was the extent of his control over this object.

Realizing this, Han Li, in extreme frustration, spent nearly half a day cursing loudly over the empty sea. The target of his curses was, naturally, the nonexistent master of the Void Heaven Palace.

It was obvious that there was some strange property to this Void Heaven Cauldron. Either it could only be driven by Nascent Soul cultivators, or there was some other trick to opening it, a matter not as simple as merely infusing spiritual power.

Could it be related to the Azure Ice Flame that had originally surrounded the cauldron?

Utterly baffled, Han Li could only make wild guesses.

On second thought, this was only natural.

Dubbed the number one secret treasure of the Chaotic Star Sea, it was only to be expected that the Void Heaven Cauldron would have some peculiarities. There was no need to be overly shocked.

But to possess a treasure, yet be unable to use it! This vexed Han Li to no end.

In a fit of pique, he threw the cauldron back into his storage pouch, deciding to study it properly when he had the time.

Next, Han Li took out the wolf-head jade ruyi and began to explore its uses.

In fact, within this short time, he managed to discover two of this ancient treasure’s powers.

The simplest was to directly infuse spiritual power into the ruyi, which would generate a yellow and red bi-colored barrier around his body.

Han Li had personally witnessed the defensive capability of this barrier within the Void Heaven Palace. It had withstood a blow from the giant palm conjured by the Green Robe Hermit without any damage—clearly extraordinary.

The second power required Han Li to silently recite a few lines of ancient incantation inscribed on the side of the ruyi, and then probe his divine sense into the wolf heads at each end. Depending on the situation, he could summon either a small red wolf or a small yellow wolf, or summon a single massive silver wolf all at once.

The small red wolf seemed to be a manifestation of incredibly pure fire-attributed spiritual energy, innately possessing several moderately powerful fire spiritual techniques.

The other small wolf, yellow in color, was earth-attributed, excelling in earth spiritual techniques. This included the Earth Escape Art, a technique Han Li had long wished to learn but had never been able to comprehend.

This was an unexpected and pleasant surprise for Han Li.

As for the massive silver wolf, Han Li found it rather troublesome. He was unable to control this beast.

While it would react to his commands, its movements always had a lazy, perfunctory quality.

When he tried to see what spells this wolf could use, it would play dumb and ignore him.

When Han Li caught a glimpse of a highly humanized, dismissive look in the silver wolf’s eyes, he was at a complete loss for words.

He could see that both the yellow and red wolves were merely incarnations of the silver wolf. It was clear that this silver wolf was the true artifact spirit of the jade ruyi.

As for why the silver wolf was so unruly, it was likely because it had not been completely refined. This was the only explanation Han Li could think of.

However, Han Li remembered clearly the look of surprise on the old Profound Bone demon’s face when he saw the silver wolf, even going so far as to release the Gold Lightning Bamboo Small Arrow.

This silver wolf artifact spirit was definitely something special. Of that, there was no doubt.

Thus, not getting angry, Han Li put the jade ruyi away for now. Next, he began to organize the other treasures he had obtained from the Void Heaven Palace.

The rings given by the several old demons, the Spirit Resonance Pendant, the Chilling Pearl, and other treasures… Han Li re-examined them all and found nothing wrong. However, he dared not continue to carry them on his person. He stored them all in his storage pouch.

Only the “Imperial Scale Armor” from Man Brutal Beard was something Han Li was truly reluctant to part with, given its exceptional defensive power. After thinking it over, he continued to wear it directly against his skin.

As for the “puppet parts and fragments” he had obtained, and the small half-bottle of “Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Milk,” as well as the short half-finger-length section of “Soul-Nourishing Wood” root, Han Li also handled them properly.

During this process, Han Li accidentally came across some five-colored small round beads. This gave him a slight start, and he then recalled their origin.

These were the strange remnants left behind after he incinerated a five-colored skeleton back at the teleportation array in Tian Nan.

Thinking back, since the Blood Jade Spider had been near that skeleton, it was highly likely that it belonged to the other rebellious disciple of the Profound Bone Saint, “Extreme Xuan.”

Just why the bones were five-colored, and what their relationship was with the Yue Emperor, remained a puzzle for Han Li.

But as he looked at these beads, Han Li inexplicably thought of the Heaven-Mending Pill that had flown out of the Void Heaven Cauldron.

They were the same color, except the Heaven-Mending Pill was much larger than these beads and radiated light all over, appearing far more dazzling.

Han Li stared at the beads in his palm, contemplating silently for a long while, before solemnly putting them away.

Afterwards, having identified his direction, Han Li took out the Blood-colored Cloak and flew at maximum speed.

With his whole body wrapped in a mass of blood light, he broke through the air toward Heavenly Star City like a shooting star.

Although doing so consumed a massive amount of spiritual power, his speed was easily several times that of an ordinary Core Formation cultivator.

Now, he needed to return to his cave dwelling at Heavenly Star City before the other cultivators emerged from the Void Heaven Palace.

He could not leave behind a single Gold Devourer Beetle from the ones he had painstakingly kept there.

He absolutely could not let those insects fall into the hands of the old freaks who might come looking for him later. Who knew if those old demons didn’t have some secret technique that could also nurture these strange insects!

Furthermore, he had already planned to abandon his cave dwelling as soon as he returned to Heavenly Star City and use the Star Palace’s teleportation formation to teleport to the Outer Star Seas.

He wanted to both collect demonic cores by hunting beasts, and temporarily lie low to avoid the commotion over the treasures he had seized, allowing his cultivation to break through to the early Core Formation stage as soon as possible.

After flying for some time in this manner, once he felt his mana was mostly depleted, Han Li would immediately switch back to ordinary flying speed, holding a mid-grade spirit stone in his hand to slowly recover his power.

When his mana was mostly restored, he would use the ancient treasure Blood Cloak to continue on his way.

In this manner, Han Li’s speed was truly astonishing. In just a few days, he covered a distance that would have taken him half a month to travel before.

On the road, Han Li did encounter other cultivators, but they were all low-level cultivators at the Foundation Establishment or even Qi Condensation stage. Unable to be bothered with them, Han Li simply brushed past them.

Upon seeing the speed of Han Li’s flying light, these cultivators naturally knew they had encountered a Core Formation senior and dared not disturb him!

However, as he drew closer to Heavenly Star City, the number of cultivators he encountered on the road gradually increased.

Groups of several, or even over a dozen cultivators traveling together appeared.

Finally, after a month, Han Li saw his first Core Formation cultivator on this journey.

But the moment this cultivator saw Han Li, he immediately warily kept a great distance, having no intention of approaching to talk.

This could be understood in the case of one person. But in the following days, Han Li ran into two more Core Formation cultivators with the same expression and behavior. He began to sense something was wrong.

Could something major have happened in the Chaotic Star Sea during the time he was inside the Void Heaven Palace seizing treasures?

Once this thought surfaced, Han Li naturally couldn’t just fly on in ignorance.

So, that day, while Han Li was flying slowly over the sea surface, holding a spirit stone in his hand, a group of cultivators appeared from another direction.

There were seven or eight of them in total, all at the Foundation Establishment stage. They were clearly cultivators belonging to some organization.

Without a word, Han Li transformed into a green rainbow and shot towards them.

Han Li had no intention of concealing his flying light, so as soon as these cultivators saw him flying towards them, they immediately fell into a stir. However, after a scolding from the leader, an old man, they all stood quietly with their hands at their sides.

“Does this Senior have some business where we juniors might be of service?” The old man, though his hair was gray, was very spirited. Before Han Li even reached him, he bowed and spoke first, his respectful and polite demeanor leaving nothing to be desired.

The green light converged, and Han Li’s figure appeared before the group of cultivators. He swept a cool glance over them before calmly asking:

“Which sect are you cultivators from, and where are you headed?”

“We are cultivators of the Three Immortals Sect, Senior. We are following our Sect Leader’s orders and heading to Heavenly Star City!” The old man replied respectfully.

“Headed to Heavenly Star City? On my way here, I’ve noticed that the number of cultivators going in the direction of Heavenly Star City has suddenly increased a lot, and the atmosphere seems a bit tense.” Han Li frowned, and after a moment of silence, spoke slowly.

“Heh heh! It seems Senior has been in an uninhabited area for a while and hasn’t heard of this. Recently, a major event happened at Heavenly Star City, and almost all sects and powers are sending people there!” The old man was startled for a moment, but secretly breathed a sigh of relief and quickly put on a fawning smile.