Chapter 259: Busy at Work
The stone cauldron was the same one that he had obtained from the monkey king, and the monkey wine inside had already been removed, but due to the fact that the monkey wine had been in there for a long time, it was still giving off a faint wine aroma.
Han Li took a deep breath, then quickly made a string of strange hand seals.
Bursts of azure light flew out of his palms in succession before landing upon the stone cauldron, and the eight large runes engraved onto its surface instantly began to glow with silver light.
It worked!
Han Li was ecstatic to see this.
Sure enough, the treasure refinement method that he had obtained from Qilin 9 was effective on this cauldron.
More incantation seals continued to fly out of his hands as he began to chant and incantation, and the light radiating from the runes on the stone cauldron became brighter and brighter.
A string of faint cracks rang out from the cauldron, and a series of patterns similar to the veins of the a leaf appeared on its surface before also radiating dazzling silver light.
Chunks of stone slid off the cauldron amid the silver light before crashing to the ground, and as a result, the cauldron rapidly shrank in size, reduced to only around half its original size before too long.
By the time all of the silver light faded, the original stone cauldron had been replaced by a silver pill cauldron with complex patterns engraved onto its surface. Those eight runes were still present, but they had become even more beautiful and intricate than before.
Refining pills in a cauldron like this must have many benefits.
After taking a moment to observe the material and the aura of the cauldron, he discovered that it wasn't inferior to Ping Yaozi's golden cauldron in the slightest.
All of a sudden, a fiery silver figure that was no more than two feet tall flew out of his body amid a flash of silver light, and it jumped onto the ground before immediately having its attention drawn to the pill cauldron before it. It took a few glances at the cauldron, then looked back at Han Li before circling around the cauldron.
A faint smile appeared on Han Li's face as he issued an instruction to the silver figure, and it immediately jumped into the lid of the cauldron. Immediately thereafter, its round cheeks began to bulge, and a massive burst of fire that was completely disproportionate to its own body came surging out of its mouth.
The silver flame swept through the air in an arc, then flew under the cauldron and immediately began to burn fiercely.
As this happened, a wave of scorching heat spread through the entire secret chamber.
A short while later, all of the spirit patterns on the silver cauldron lit up, and it gradually took on a crimson hue, while the cauldron itself also rose up into the air while swaying slightly from side to side.
The tiny silver figure seated on the lid of the cauldron seemed to have been greatly intrigued by this, and it scooted over to the edge of the cauldron's lid, swaying with the cauldron while its little legs were dangling over the edge of the lid.
With a sweep of his sleeve, Han Li summoned a batch of around a dozen spirit medicines, including a Blaze Tuber Herb.
He then rubbed his hands together momentarily, and all of the spirit medicines were instantly reduced to medicinal powder.
Immediately thereafter, he brought two of his fingers together before raising them up, and the cauldron of the lid beneath the tiny silver figure instantly flew up into the air at his behest.
The medicinal powder that was suspended in mid-air was drawn into the cauldron by a burst of invisible force, following which the lid of the cauldron also fell into place with an audible click.
Immediately thereafter, the eight runes on the silver cauldron lit up one after another.
The silver flame beneath the cauldron seemed to have been restricted by some type of invisible force, causing it to twist and swirl, becoming a miniature fiery tornado that enveloped the entire cauldron.
The fiery silver figure seated on the cauldron's lid instantly transformed into a silver fire raven as it flew into the fiery tornado to become one with it.
The fiery tornado abruptly shuddered, and the heat radiating from it increased by several fold.
Han Li's eyes immediately lit up upon seeing this.
At this rate, it was going to take far less time to refine this batch of pills, but the success rate was still yet to be seen.
Time slowly passed by, and Han Li was occasionally using his Mantra Treasured Axis for assistance during the pill refinement process. The cauldron was radiating rainbow light, but no medicinal aroma had begun to waft out of the cauldron up to this point.
Around 16 hours later, the rainbow light glowing from the cauldron suddenly faded, and the cauldron reverted back to its original silver color, except some parts were red-hot.
The silver flame swept back before converging to reform a fiery silver figure, which flew out from under the cauldron before landing on Han Li's shoulder.
A loud clang rang out as the silver cauldron landed back on the ground.
Han Li's brows were slightly furrowed as he approached the cauldron, then gently swept a sleeve toward it.
The lid of the silver cauldron was removed, and an extremely rich medicinal aroma instantly wafted out to fill the entire secret chamber.
Han Li peered into the cauldron to find 16 golden pills laying inside, and they were still giving off faint wisps of white mist from the residual heat that they retained.
This is incredible! Not only has this cauldron significantly shortened the time required to refine these pills, it's also produced a far larger batch than usual!
Han Li suppressed his elation as he stored the pills into a jade vial, then swept a sleeve through the air to summon another batch of ingredients to refine some more pills.
……
Several months later, the silver flames within the secret chamber faded, and a silver fire raven flew out from under the cauldron. It transformed into a fiery silver figure that landed on the ground, then skipped over to Han Li before climbing up onto his shoulder along his robes.
There was a slightly weary look on Han Li's face as he turned to the fiery silver figure with a smile, then made his way over to the silver cauldron.
The lid of the cauldron flew off at his behest, and a rich medicinal aroma was instantly released.
Han Li made a grabbing motion to pull out the pills in the cauldron for an examination, and he discovered that they had a bright green hue and each of them was around the same size as a longan.
"Not bad! 11 pills is already a lot more than I would normally be able to refine in one batch," he remarked to himself as he flipped a hand over to store the pills into a white jade vial.
A thought then suddenly occurred to him, and he sat down with his legs crossed before flipping a hand over to produce his Transient Guild mask, which he promptly put on.
A massive array was projected onto the wall of the secret chamber amid a flash of azure light, and Han Li began to carefully inspect the missions column on the left side of the array.
After a long while, he withdrew his gaze before removing his mask, and a grim look appeared on his face as he heaved a faint sigh.
Heh ad noticed that all of the missions released by Qilin 17 had disappeared. Barring the extremely slim chance that all of the missions had been withdrawn or completed, something had to have happened to him or his Transient Guild mask.
Han Li took a moment to check the spiritual marks that he had left at the entrance of this secret area and the cliff near the Thunderstorm Sea, and both of them were still intact.
Around a dozen years passed by in the blink of an eye.
He had spent half of this time refining pills, and he had also derived many crystals containing the laws of time using the Heaven Controlling Vial.
On this day, several dozen young men and women dressed in Blaze Dragon Dao disciple robes converged from directions, landing on the plaza in front of the entrance of Han Li's cave abode.
Han Li was standing before them, and his gaze roamed over them as he called out a few names.
"Hu Zhen, Luo Tang, Xin Sui..."
The young men and women who had had their names called immediately stepped forward before cupping their fists toward Han Li in a collective salute.
All of them were at the pinnacle of the Spatial Tempering Stage, and they were the most formidable ones among the disciples stationed in this secret area.
"I'm going into seclusion for a while, so I'll be counting on you to take care of all of the affairs in the secret area. There's no need to report to me unless something important or urgent arises," Han Li instructed.
"Yes, Elder Li," the disciples answered in unison.
"I'll be leaving a secret talisman with you. If you encounter a situation that you can't handle on your own, just inject your spiritual power into the talisman, and it'll fly into my cave abode to notify me," Han Li said.
The disciples gave an affirmative response once again.
A dark-skinned young man stepped forward to accept the secret talisman with both hands as he said, "Rest assured, Elder Li, we'll be sure to perform our duties diligently."
Han Li nodded in response as he waved a dismissive hand and said, "Alright, you can all go now."
Everyone extended a collective parting salute, then flew away as streaks of light.
Close to a day later, the mountain that Han Li was situated on began to shudder, and pillars of azure light rose up into the heavens, then converged in the sky to form a massive azure light barrier that encompassed the entire mountain.
Inside a newly carved out giant cave on the mountain, there was a fire pit in the stone wall to the left, and on the stone table next to the fire pit were seven or eight different types of spirit materials.
The most eye-catching ones among them were around a dozen chunks of dark golden metal the size of human heads, and a fist-sized white rock with many flower-petal-like patterns on its surface.
These were none other than the Dendrobium Gold Essence and the Jade Gleam Cloud Stone.
Han Li was standing beside the fire pit, and he drew the Jade Gleam Cloud Stone into his grasp, gently massaging it to feel its warm and smooth texture.
During the time that he had spent in this secret area, he had been refining pills while keeping up with news from the Blaze Dragon Dao, and according to his sources, it appeared that Gu Jie was no longer situated near the Blaze Dragon Dao.
Hopefully, he was forced away by a certain Golden Immortal of the sect.
Even so, Han Li still didn't dare to underestimate the wrath of a Golden Immortal, so he didn't let down his guard.
At this point, he had already refined quite a large number of pills, and he was planning to begin consuming these pills and resuming his cultivation soon.
However, prior to that, he had to refine his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords again.
He pointed a finger forward, and a joyful cry rang out within his body as the Essence Fire Raven flew out of his fingertip before hurtling into the fire pit, setting it alight.
A scorching silver flame instantly appeared within the fire pit.
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