Chapter 196: Setup
As Han Li continued to descend deeper and deeper underground, the air temperature was also rapidly rising, while the passageway was becoming wider and wider. At this stage, its highest point was already over 100 feet tall.
Han Li continued to follow along behind the fire raven while inspecting the walls of the cave on either side of him.
The cave walls were quite even and smooth, and there were many signs of sections having previously been repaired.
Was the previous elder inhabiting this mountain carrying out these repairs? Han Li speculated.
Given how abundant the fire-attribute energy here was, it was most likely the case that the previous elder was using fire-attribute cultivation arts, and by that logic, it was very likely that he was the one who had set up the illusory restriction outside.
After flying for another 15 minutes, the dull rumbling was becoming louder and louder, as if countless thunderclaps were ringing out in succession.
For some reason, the Essence Fire Raven suddenly sped up by about twofold here, and Han Li naturally picked up the pace as well.
Shortly thereafter, a massive fiery red world appeared before his eyes. It was an enormous underground cavern that was tens of thousands of feet in size.
The roof of the cavern was riddled with crimson stalactites that were burning incessantly with a layer of flames.
Down below was a huge lake of magma, hovering above which was a fiery crimson cloud.
The magma in the lake was churning incessantly, and a series of massive air bubbles would appear occasionally before popping amid a sound that resembled a rumbling thunderclap.
Numerous fist-sized balls of red light would then emerge from the bubbles before spreading through the surrounding area.
That's fire essence!
Han Li's eyes immediately lit up upon seeing this.
The entire underground space was filled with this fiery crimson light, and even the very air seemed to have been set alight. The temperature here was incredibly hot, to the point that even Han Li was feeling quite parched in the mouth despite his Profound Immortal physique.
The gusts of scorching wind blowing from the surface of the lake were causing a stinging sensation against Han Li's skin, yet the Essence Fire Raven was ecstatic in this incredibly hostile environment.
The fire raven spread its wings as it flew around the entire space as a silver shadow, eagerly gulping down the balls of fire essence in the process. It would even occasionally dive straight into the lake of magma down below, vanishing in a flash only to re-emerge from another part of the lake an instant later in an elated manner.
The underground fire vein here was far more abundant than Han Li had anticipated, and it was no wonder that the previous elder had set up that restriction to conceal it.
He was confident that the Essence Fire Raven would be able to quickly recover to the former peak of its powers here, but there was still something missing.
With that in mind, Han Li swept a sleeve through the air to release several hundred bursts of red light, each of which contained a fiery red array flag, and they landed in the air above the lake of magma to form a huge array.
He then began to chant an incantation while releasing a series of incantation seals, and the entire array was activated. Each array flag released numerous bursts of red light, which came together form a massive red array.
The Essence Fire Raven instantly realized what Han Li's intentions were, and it immediately stopped playing as it flew onto the center of the array.
In the next instant, all of the power of fire in the entire underground space was drawn toward the array, forming layer upon layer around the Essence Fire Raven, and before long, a huge fiery red cocoon had taken shape.
Han Li rose up into the air, reaching a certain part of the underground cavern's wall in a flash, then flipped a hand over to produce a giant red brush, using which he quickly inscribed countless massive runes onto the wall, forming a flame-shaped design.
Immediately thereafter, he appeared in front of another section of the cavern wall in a flash and did the same thing.
A short while later, eight flame designs had been inscribed onto the cavern wall by Han Li, surrounding the massive cocoon from all directions.
Only then did Han Li stow the giant brush away before beginning to chant an incantation.
The eight flame designs engraved onto the wall began to glow in unison, quickly connecting together to form another massive array that enveloped the giant cocoon.
The two arrays were resonating with one another, and the underground space shuddered slightly as even more power of fire converged from all directions before surging into the fiery cocoon.
At this moment, Han Li could clearly sense the power of the Essence Fire Raven being slowly elevated every single second, and a pleased look appeared in his eyes.
He made a lap around the cavern to ensure that the two arrays were operating with no problems, and only after that did he return the same way that he had come to emerge on the outside again.
After taking a brief glance at his surroundings, he swept a sleeve through the air to release numerous bursts of light that descended into the nearby valley, quickly forming a massive array that encompassed the entire valley again.
Now that the Essence Fire Raven had a place to cultivate, Han Li was in a great mood, and instead of immediately flying back to the summit of the Crimson Dawn Peak, he decided to explore the region around it.
The entire area in a radius of 300,000 feet around the Crimson Dawn Peak was going to be his territory from this day forth, so he naturally had to take a good look around and make some preparations.
It took Han Li close to half a day to explore the entirety of his territory, and he set up some sensory arrays at various points to alert him if anyone tried to sneak onto his land.
As the core of the entire territory, the Crimson Dawn Peak was the place where all of the spirit veins in the area converged, and the world's origin here was more abundant than anywhere else.
However, aside from this mountain, Han Li had also discovered two small spirit areas that were of a decent size for Northern Glacial Immortal Region standards, as well as around a dozen good ore veins.
The ore veins had already been mostly exhausted of ore, while the two spirit areas had been split up into blocks of spirit farmland, but they had clearly been completely abandoned and neglected for a very long time.
Another True Immortal elder in Han Li's shoes would've most likely sent some servants to tend to these ore veins and plots of spirit farmland as a form of long-term spirit stone revenue stream, but Han Li had no interest in doing this.
At the very least, he had no plans of doing this for the moment, and he quickly returned to the summit of the Crimson Dawn Peak.
At this moment, Meng Yungui and the others were all gathered at the entrance of the courtyard, and they extended deep bows toward him in unison.
The entire mountain summit had already been cleaned up, and it was looking pristine and spotless everywhere.
The pavilions and bridges had also been given a new lease on life, and schools of golden fish could be seen swimming through the creeks between the bridges, darting playfully between the vibrant green lotus leaves.
Han Li gave a pleased nod upon seeing this, then assigned the rooms around the cave abode to Yun Mengui and the others before dismissing them to go and rest.
After that, Han Li examined the cave abode, setting up some restrictions before arriving at the spirit medicine field.
This spirit medicine field was situated on the outside, so he naturally wasn't going to be planting any important spirit medicines here. Having said that, leaving it vacant would've aroused suspicions as well.
Hence, after some contemplation, Han Li split the field up into several sections, then planted some ordinary spirit medicine seeds onto it.
He had already done this countless times, so he had become extremely proficient, and it didn't take very long at all before a brand new medicine field took shape.
After that, he flipped a hand over to produce a jade flagon, and an azure spirit liquid flowed out of the flagon at his behest before raining down onto the medicine field.
He then swept a sleeve through the air to release a burst of azure light that enveloped the entire spirit medicine field, and tiny green seedlings quickly sprouted out of the soil.
A faint smile appeared on his face upon seeing this, and he turned before making his way through the courtyard and into the cave abode.
From the outside, the cave abode appeared to have been completely unremarkable, but the inside was a different story. Within the cave abode were around a dozen rooms, including the likes of a pill refinement chamber and tool refinement chamber, thereby saving Han Li a lot of work.
In contrast with the courtyard up front, Han Li naturally preferred the environment in here, and the same had most likely applied to the previous owner of the cave abode as well.
After a brief moment of contemplation, he began to make some personal touches, modifying the most obscure stone chamber in the cave abode into a small medicine garden. He then dug out another stone chamber near the mountain face on the outside, then punched countless tiny holes into the wall so that starlight and moonlight could filter into the room to be absorbed by the Heaven Controlling Vial.
Only after all of these preparations were complete did Han Li emerge from the cave abode once again with the plan to set up a few more restrictions.
However, right as he was about to do this, his expression suddenly stiffened as he directed his gaze toward the spirit medicine field beside the courtyard.
For some reason, most of the seedlings that had just sprouted from the soil had already wilted, and there were only a few that were still alive.
A perplexed look appeared on Han Li's face as he hurried over to the field before pulling out one of the wilted seedlings.
The root of the seedling had completely wilted and turned black in color, as if it had been burned.
He pulled out a few more seedlings to find the exact same thing. However, there were also several types of seedlings that were growing very well and showed no signs of wilting at all.
He immediately released his spiritual sense, and it didn't take long before he discovered the potential cause behind this phenomenon.
Due to the fact that the underground fire veins had remained unchecked for many years, the abundant fire-attribute spiritual power that they contained had gradually seeped up into the earth. As a result, all of the soil on and around the Crimson Dawn Peak had been imbued with a great deal of fire-attribute spiritual power.
This type of environment was perfect for fire-attribute spirit plants, but made it impossible for spirit plants of any other attributes to survive.
Han Li turned his attention to the seedlings that were still standing, and sure enough, they were all of the fire attribute.
His brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this, clearly not anticipating this problem.
It was no wonder no one else had claimed the Crimson Dawn Peak and why both Yu Xiansheng and Qi Liang had displayed rather peculiar reactions when he decided to choose this place.
However, this wasn't too much of a problem for Han Li.
It seemed that this was quite a troublesome situation, but it wasn't one that was completely untenable. All he had to do was set up some separation arrays to prevent the soil from being further affected by the underground spirit veins.
That would negatively impact the spirit herbs' absorption of spiritual qi from the underground veins, but that wasn't much of a concern to him, seeing as he was relying almost solely upon his Heaven Controlling Vial to mature his spirit plants.
As for the spirit medicine field beside the courtyard, that was only going to be used as a red herring anyway, so all he had to do was plant some fire-attribute spirit plants there.
With that in mind, he didn't consider this matter any further and returned to work.
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