Chapter 258: Opening the Box
Han Li was looking out at the unique scenery of the secret area with a rather absentminded expression, and it was clear that his mind was elsewhere.
He had already been here for over a month, and during that time, he had determined that the only way to enter and exit this place was through that sole entrance. Hence, he had set up some restrictions at the entrance and also left a wisp of his spiritual sense behind so that he would be alerted in advance if Gu Jie were to ever come after him in this secret area.
Of course, the fact that there was only a single entrance and exit meant that it was also rather troublesome for him to escape this place.
In order to resolve this issue, Han Li had made a trip to the southern end of the Ancient Cloud Continent before coming here, and there, he had carved out a cave on a secluded cliff face near the Thunderstorm Sea.
Inside the cave, he had used nine lengths of Lightning Restraining Wood to set up a stable lightning array that could facilitate ultra long-distance teleportation, and he had also left a spiritual mark there.
As a result, whenever he used his lightning array for teleportation, he would be able to instantly teleport himself to that cave thanks to the spiritual mark that he had left there.
Even if Gu Jie really were to track him down to this place, he would be able to instantly teleport himself to the cave before fleeing into the Thunderstorm Sea, and there was a very good chance that he would be able to escape.
However, due to the fact that the lightning array was constantly active, it was constantly using up the power of lightning within the lengths of Lightning Restraining Wood, so it would only be able to last no more than a century before going defunct.
"I've done everything that I can, so there's no point in worrying about things outside of my control," Han Li murmured to himself, then turned and made his way toward the cave abode on the other side of the plaza.
After returning to the secret chamber in the cave abode, Han Li sat down with his legs crossed, then flipped a hand over to produce two thin sheets of yellow paper, which he began examining closely.
The two sheets of paper contained the recipes for the Origin Unifying Pill and the Spring Rain Pill.
In order to advance his own cultivation base as quickly as possible, he would have to refine large batches of earthly pills to enhance his progress.
At this point, he had already become quite skilled at refining Origin Unifying Pills, achieving a far higher success rate than before. He had never refined any Spring Rain Pills, but he was confident that it wouldn't have been very difficult thanks to his Mantra Treasured Axis.
He also had a decent supply of ingredients required to refine these two types of pills, but in order to plan for the future, he had still planted most of his spirit medicine seeds in the private spirit medicine garden in his cave abode.
He knew that even though he had obtained two earthly pill recipes, his body would eventually begin to develop tolerance if he were to repeatedly consume the same types of pills, and once that happened, the pills would no longer be as efficacious as before.
Hence, he required a more diverse range of earthly pill recipes.
For this purpose, he had released a mission in the Transient Guild, expressing a desire to exchange resources for earthly pill recipes, but pill recipes of this caliber were extremely rare and precious, and he hadn't been able to secure any further recipes through that avenue.
All of a sudden, he flipped a hand over to produce a purple jade box, the very same one that had once belonged to Ping Yaozi.
The fact that the box had been so closely guarded by someone who was close to becoming a Heavenly Pill Master indicated that whatever was inside had to have been extremely precious, and there was a chance that it contained Ping Yaozi's collection of pill recipes.
He swept his gaze over the patterns on the surface of the purple box, then flipped a hand over to summon around a dozen black flags, each of which was only around an inch in size. The flags were made from a black metallic material with many complex patterns engraved onto them.
Han Li planted these metal flags in a circle into the stone ground, then raised a finger and began inscribing lines onto the ground in between the flags.
Before long, a tiny yet complex array had taken shape on the ground.
Han Li set the purple jade box down onto the center of the array, then made a hand seal as he began to chant an incantation.
As he did so, all of the patterns on the black flags and the array engraved into the ground lit up in unison.
A burst of dazzling light then erupted out of the array at Han Li's behest to swallow up the entire purple jade box, and the silver talisman that was adhered tightly to the box suddenly erupted into flames.
The flames illuminated all of the patterns engraved onto the surface of the box, giving it a glittering and translucent appearance, as if it were a gorgeous piece of purple crystal. However, Han Li didn't get a chance to appreciate its beauty as the box had suddenly began to tremble violently, and the patterns on its surface were glowing brighter and brighter, looking as if they were about to crack open.
Han Li's brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this, and he immediately activated his Brightsight Spirit Eyes.
In doing so, he discovered that there were secret runes engraved onto the interior of the box, and all of these runes had lit up, initiating a self-destruct sequence to destroy the jade box and its contents.
There were two layers of restrictions placed upon the jade box, and if one were to only remove the silver talisman, the secret runes on the inside of the box would be activated to destroy everything.
In this tense situation, Han Li immediately summoned his Mantra Treasured Axis, and it appeared behind him in the form of a golden wheel that was around a foot in size, slowly revolving in mid-air.
The Mantra Treasured Axis began to revolve faster at his behest, and it released countless golden ripples that spread through the air in all directions, instantly encompassing the entire surrounding area in a radius of 100 feet.
All of a sudden, everything in the secret chamber aside from Han Li himself was slowed down.
The runes within the purple jade box had been flashing so quickly that it had appeared as if they had been glowing continuously this entire time, and only now that they had been slowed down did Han Li discover that they were actually flashing.
He immediately made a rapid string of hand seals before quickly rearranging the black flags with both hands, creating a brand new miniature array in the blink of an eye.
After that, the new array began to radiate dazzling light at his behest, and a burst of black light shot out of the black flags like miniature arrows before hurtling into the box.
Inside the jade box, the light glowing from the concealed runes faded, and the flame that was burning outside the box also gradually shrank down.
By the time the flame was completely snuffed out, the patterns on the box had also fallen dark, and the box opened up on its own with a faint crack.
Han Li withdrew the Mantra Treasured Axis back into his own body, then reached out to make a grabbing motion, drawing the purple jade box into his grasp.
He had already set up a high-level restrictive array outside the secret chamber, so he wasn't concerned that the jade box would contain some type of secret mechanism that would expose his current location.
He peered into the box to find that it was completely empty with the exception of a stack of thin golden pages laying at the bottom.
Han Li released his spiritual sense to verify that there weren't any spiritual marks planted on the pages, and only then did he pick them up for a closer examination.
The words "Growth Bearing Pill" were inscribed on the top sheet of paper in ancient text, and below that was the recipe and refinement method for the pill.
An elated look appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this. Just as he expected, the box contained Ping Yaozi's collection of pill recipes.
After briefly reading through the first page in the stack, he flipped through a dozen or so of the pages that came after the first one, and to his elation, he discovered that most of them were earthly pill recipes. Including the recipe for the Growth Bearing Pill, there were as many as seven earthly pill recipes.
However, this made sense to him after he considered the fact that Ping Yaozi already possessed the ability to refine dao pills prior to his demise.
With these seven earthly pill recipes in addition to the recipes for the Origin Unifying Pill and the Spring Rain Pill, he wasn't going to have to dedicate any time and energy to searching for more earthly pill recipes anytime soon.
According to the description of the pill enclosed in the recipe, Han Li was able to confirm beyond a reasonable doubt that the vial of yellow pills he had obtained from Ping Yaozi earlier was a vial of Growth Bearing Pills.
These pills seemed to have been of a higher caliber than Spring Rain PIlls, and of course, the spirit medicines used for their refinement were all extremely precious.
Thankfully, this secret area of floating mountains was a natural treasure trove of spirit medicines, so he could source many of the ingredients here, and given his status, the sect definitely wasn't going to come after him if he only collected a batch of spirit medicines that were no more than 100 years of age.
After that, he would just have to nurture those spirit medicines to the correct age with the spirit liquid from the Heaven Controlling Vial, and he could purchase any ingredients that he couldn't find with Immortal Origin Stones.
Han Li suppressed the elation in his heart as he picked up the jade box, and he was just about to put all of the pill recipes back into the box when he suddenly noticed that something didn't seem to have been quite right with the bottom of the box.
He flipped a hand over to produce a dagger that was as thin as a willow leaf, then plunged it into the edge of the jade box before gently prying it upward.
A faint crack rang out, and a purple jade board that was as smooth as a mirror was pried up from the bottom of the box.
The jade board wasn't much thicker than a sheet of paper, and Han Li picked it up before carefully examining it.
With the light of the flames in the secret chamber, he could see that the jade board was riddled with countless extremely thin runes that were interconnected to form an extremely complex design.
Han Li released his spiritual sense to encompass the jade board, and as soon as his spiritual sense came into contact with the board, a layer of golden light instantly rose up from all of the patterns on its surface, releasing a series of golden runes that repelled his spiritual sense.
After a few more attempts, he was still unable to make any progress, so he could only give up on this endeavor for now.
It wasn't that he couldn't forcibly bypass the golden light barrier with his spiritual sense. Instead, he simply didn't want to risk breaking the jade board as he had a feeling that it was something quite precious.
In the end, he could only place the jade board back into the box along with the pill recipes before stowing the box away again.
After that, he swept a sleeve through the air, and a gray stone cauldron appeared in front of him amid a flash of light before landing on the ground with a dull thud.
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