Chapter 220: Along the Way
It seemed that Han Li was able to slay the Origin Mirage Beast in just an instant, but in reality, it had taken a bit of preparation.
Back when he had almost chopped off his own arm after falling prey to the golden-robed man's illusion the first time, he had already activated his Spirit Refinement Technique to discover that its true body was concealed within the sword dragon, so the golden-robed man was nothing more than a deeper illusion.
After acquiring this piece of knowledge, Han Li decided to play along, combining the 72 Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords in his body into one in advance before lashing out to deal the killing blow right as his opponents thought that he had won the battle.
With a wave of his hand, all of the Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords flew back to Han Li, then circled around in the air for a moment before vanishing into his body.
Han Li took a glance at the body of the golden-robed man on the surface of the lake, then rose up into the air before descending onto the lake as well, sending slight ripples surging over its surface.
He bent down and examined the golden-robed man's body with his spiritual sense for a moment, then raised his right hand before bringing it down like a blade, plunging it straight into the golden-robed man's lower abdomen to pull out a walnut-sized dark purple demon core.
After losing its demon core, the body of the golden-robed man suddenly began to expand.
A layer of fine cold scales appeared over the body's skin, and the golden dragon robe that it was wearing was quickly torn apart. The body gradually elongated before ultimately transforming into a dragon-like beast with no horns and no claws, then slowly sank into the lake.
After a moment of hesitation, Han Li cast a water repulsion restriction on himself before descending into the lake as well.
Inside the lake, he quickly spotted the body of the Origin Mirage Beast, which was sinking toward a palace on the lakebed.
The Cloud Cover Lake was over 1,000 feet deep, and the light on the lakebed was extremely dim, but the palace was giving off radiant white light, resembling a glittering and translucent crystalline palace.
Upon arriving in front of the palace, Han Li discovered that it was encompassed within a near-transparent light membrane that was keeping out all of the water in the lake.
Instead of immediately entering the palace, Han Li drifted over to the body of the Origin Mirage Beast, then plunged his fingers into the body to pull out a tendon.
The deer-masked figure from the Transient Guild had told him that this demon beast potentially possessed the bloodline of the Mirage Dragon, so he wanted to see if he could extract the blood essence. However, after toiling away for quite some time, he was unable to extract even a single drop of blood essence, and he could only give up in the end.
After harvesting all of the useful parts of the demon beast's body, he returned to the palace and bypassed the light membrane with ease, arriving in front of the palace gates.
The crystalline palace before him was extremely beautiful to behold, with all types of intricate engravings on its surface, making it resemble an immortal abode far more so than the lair of a demon beast.
Han Li laid his palm against the palace gates before pushing forward, and the two white jade gates, each of which was around 30 feet tall and a foot thick, began to slowly open inward.
Han Li made his way into the palace through the entrance, and he discovered that the furnishings inside were rather bare.
There were only two rows of cylindrical pillars standing on either side of the palace, but several small mountains of items of all types of different descriptions had been piled up around the pillars, presenting an astonishing sight to behold.
As it turned out, these mountainous piles of items consisted of all types of spirit stones and treasures of different grades and calibers, all of which were mixed together and strewn about in a haphazard fashion.
Several days ago, he had wondered to himself why there were so few treasures left in the ruins of the Falling Sand Sect, but it had now become apparent to him that the vast majority if the treasures in the sect had to have been brought here by the Origin Mirage Beast.
It was clear that this beast was a hoarder, and this vast collection had most likely come from all of the cities and sects that it had razed to the ground over the years. With its demise, all of these things now fell into Han Li's hands.
After carefully examining the mountainous piles of treasures for some time, Han Li suddenly spotted a semi-transparent object peeking out from behind a golden dragon throne deep inside the palace.
He immediately made his way over to the throne before stepping around it to discover a snake-slough-like object, which appeared as if it were made from some type of crystalline material, but it wasn't hard or cold to the touch in the slightest. Instead, it was as soft as if it had been woven from silk.
This was undoubtedly the Origin Mirage Beast's spirit husk.
Han Li immediately stowed the spirit husk away in his storage bracelet, then pulled out several storage rings to collect the mountains of treasures in the palace.
After close to half a day, all of his storage rings and the storage bracelet on his wrist had been completely filled.
The majority of the collected treasures consisted of spirit stones, and most of them were low or mid-grade ones. Among them, top-grade spirit stone proved to be exceedingly rare, with only around 600 to 700 in total.
If he were to convert the rest of the spirit stones, he estimated that he would be able to exchange them for another 300 to 400 top-grade spirit stones.
It seemed that none of the nearby sects were all that powerful. Then again, this only made sense. If there were any powerful sects nearby, then this Origin Mirage Beast wouldn't have been able to wreak havoc as it pleased for all these years.
Aside from the spirit stones, there were also over 100 treasures and several hundred artifacts, as well as some strange and exotic spirit materials, but not even a single spirit plant or pill.
The artifacts weren't noteworthy in any way, but there were some decent treasures. Of course, they weren't going to be useful to Han Li, but they would've certainly made for great additions to the collections of Meng Yungui and the others.
As for the golden longsword that the Origin Mirage Beast was using, Han Li was able to determine that it was a metal-attribute Divine Spirit Treasure, making it a treasure comparable to Han Li's former Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords.
There weren't many spirit materials in the Origin Mirage Beast's collection, but some of them were giving off very peculiar auras, and even though Han Li couldn't identify them, it was clear to him that they were no ordinary materials.
In particular, there were several head-sized chunks of dark golden metal that had clearly been formed naturally, but there were countless flower-petal-like patterns all over its surface. Furthermore, it was slightly warm to the touch.
For the next few days, Han Li didn't immediately depart from the palace. Instead, he took advantage of this time away from the Blaze Dragon Dao to unleash all of the sword arrays in his Azure Essence Sword Arts a few times with his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords.
Unsurprisingly, the sword arrays had become significantly more powerful, and Han Li was very pleased to see this.
Right before he departed from the Cloud Cover Lake, he put on his Transient Guild mask to contact the deer-masked figure, who was astonished that Han Li had managed to complete his mission so quickly.
Han Li naturally wasn't going to explain anything to him, and he offered the demon core of the Origin Mirage Beast for the deer-masked figure to examine. The deer-masked figure was ecstatic, and he immediately issued the 30 Immortal Origin Stones to Han Li.
The only reason Han Li had taken on this mission was because it was one that he could complete along the way while he was carrying out his regular elder mission for the Blaze Dragon Dao. Furthermore, he didn't want to have to wait a whole decade for the Origin Mirage Beast's next outing.
……
Several months later.
As soon as Han Li returned to the Blaze Dragon Dao, he immediately went to the side hall of the High Profound Palace without delay.
Just like last time, the hall was completely empty, and the gray-robed elderly man seated behind the redwood table was on the verge of falling asleep. Only after hearing the sound of Han Li's footsteps did he open his eyes ever so slightly.
The elderly man sat up straighter as he yawned and asked in a lazy voice, "Oh? Why are you back so soon? Could it be that the mission is too difficult for you to complete, so you're planning to submit merit points instead?"
Han Li offered no reply as he pulled out a storage pouch before setting it down onto the redwood table.
The elderly man faltered slightly upon seeing this, then briefly inspected the contents of the storage pouch with his spiritual sense, and all of the drowsiness in his eyes instantly vanished.
"I had high hopes for you, and you lived up to them, kid! I didn't think you'd be able to complete the mission so quickly."
"I was very fortunate. By the time I got there, the Origin Mirage Beast just so happened to have been absent, so I was able to complete the mission very quickly," Han Li lied.
"You're a lucky kid, but sometimes, luck is also a part of one's power," the elderly man chuckled in response, and it was unclear whether he believed Han Li's claims or not.
He stowed the spirit husk of the Origin Mirage Beast away, then pulled out that azure book and a jade brush. After scribbling something down into the book with the brush, he took Han Li's elder badge from him, and after a flash of white light, 200 merit points had been added to the badge.
"Alright, you've completed the first mission. Go back and take a rest, but don't forget to come back soon for your next mission," the elderly man said as he returned Han Li's badge to him.
"Please assign me the next mission right now, Senior," Han Li requested.
"Well, aren't you hard-working? You're completely different from those sly old foxes who try to delay their missions as much as possible," the elderly man chuckled.
Han Li offered no response to this.
Time was of the essence for him, so he naturally had to be more diligent.
The elderly man flipped open the azure book as he spoke, and after flipping through its pages for a while, he stopped on a certain page as he said, "There's a slightly urgent mission here, so I'll assign it to you."
"What is it, Senior?" Han Li asked.
"Our sect has a large Fire Origin Crystal mine in the Fire Cloud Peak to the southwest of the Ancient Cloud Continent. For some reason, many of the miners in there have recently gone missing, so the sect had to temporarily close down the mine. A Grand Ascension Stage elder that was stationed there ventured into the mine to examine the cause of the disappearances, but he went missing as well.
“Hence, a request has been submitted for the sect to send an inner sect elder to examine the situation and transport all of the Fire Origin Crystals that were excavated in the past 10 years back to the sect. This shouldn't be a very difficult mission, but the reward of 180 merit points is quite decent," the elderly man said.
Han Li nodded in response upon hearing this. "I see. Seeing as it's an urgent mission, I'll set off right away."
He immediately handed over his badge to accept the mission as he spoke, then departed without any delay.
"What an interesting lad," the elderly man mused to himself as he looked on at Han Li's departing figure.
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