Chapter 307: Immortal Puppet
The seasons passed, and over a year flew by in a flash.
On this day, a streak of azure light descended onto the Crimson Dawn Peak, then faded to reveal Han Li.
He hadn't made any effort to conceal himself, so it didn't take long before all of the servants in his cave abode were assembled to see him in the courtyard, but Meng Yungui and Sun Buzheng weren't among them.
"When did you get back, Qianqian?" Han Li asked as he swept his gaze over the eight servants.
"I only got back less than a month ago. Here are some spirit medicine seeds found by my brother and Brother Sun, they asked me to pass the seeds onto you," Meng Qianqian said as she handed Han Li a storage pouch.
Han Li accepted the storage pouch, then flipped a hand over to produce three more storage pouches that he offered to Meng Qianqian as he said, "Good. If you get the chance to meet them, pass these spirit stones and pills onto them. Also, you can distribute these pills among everyone in my stead."
Meng Qianqian accepted the storage pouches as she nodded in response. "Yes, Elder Li!"
"Has anything of note happened on our Crimson Dawn Peak or in the sect during the past few years I've been away?" Han Li asked.
"Everything has been fine on our Crimson Dawn Peak, and not much has happened in the sect, either. However, I've heard that a Golden Immortal Stage dao lord will be coming out of seclusion soon and will be preaching about the Great Dao, but the spots are very limited, and generally speaking, only direct disciples are entitled to attend," Meng Qianqian replied with a hint of longing in her eyes.
The same expression was mirrored on the faces of all of the other servants, but at the same time, they were also looking a little dejected. After all, they would've been sure to benefit immensely from hearing the preaching of a Golden Immortal, but they knew that True Immortal servants like them had no chance of being allowed to attend.
"While it's true that hearing the preaching of a powerful cultivator is a brilliant opportunity, everyone's cultivation path is different. You can listen to the experiences of others, but ultimately, you have to figure things out for yourself. In order to a fulfill the Great Dao, you must forge a path of your own, do you understand?" Han Li asked.
Meng Qianqian faltered slightly upon hearing this before nodding in response, and the disappointment in the eyes of all of the servants immediately faded.
"Alright, if there's nothing else you have to report, then you can all go for now," Han Li said with a dismissive wave.
Meng Qianqian and the others extended a collective bow before departing.
Meanwhile, Han Li remained standing on the spot for a while before entering his cave abode, and after activating all of the restrictions, he made his way into his secret chamber before sitting down with his legs crossed.
With a sweep of his sleeve, he summoned a trio of storage treasures, which he had obtained from the three True Immortals that he had slain back at the Holy Puppet Sect.
Prior to this, he had been focused solely on making the return journey, so he didn't get the chance to examine his spoils. Now that he had finally returned to his cave abode, he was naturally eager to see what he had obtained.
With that in mind, Han Li picked up a storage bracelet before emptying all of its contents, which spilled out onto the floor.
However, after a quick inspection, his brows furrowed slightly in disappointment.
These were the belongings of the burly man who had attempted to fight Han Li on his own, and he was so impoverished that his belongings consisted only of a few materials and spirit medicines, as well as several ordinary spirit treasures. Aside from that, there were only around a dozen Immortal Origin Stones, a pile of spirit stones, and some other miscellaneous items.
Given how impoverished he was, it was no wonder that he was willing to risk his life for that Ubiquitous Pavilion mission.
Han Li could only lament his own ill-fortune, but nevertheless, he still patiently categorized everything before stowing them away into his own storage bracelet. After that, he picked up the thin old man's storage treasure before emptying its contents as well.
This time, he was much more pleased with what he saw.
The majority of the old man's belongings consisted of materials of a high caliber. In particular, there were several crimson crystals around the size of human heads, and they were giving off fiery red radiance, as if they were red-hot chunks of metal.
These crimson crystals were filled with extremely abundant spiritual qi, and there were fiery patterns on their surface that were giving off fire-attribute law fluctuations, indicating that it was a type of material that contained law powers.
Aside from that, there were also around a dozen treasures, most of which were spirit treasures, as well as several vials of pills, over 500 Immortal Origin Stones, and a large pile of spirit stones.
Han Li stowed these items away as well before turning to Zhong Luan's storage bracelet, which he had saved for the finale.
He had already anticipated that Zhong Luan was most likely going to be quite wealthy, but he was still astonished by what he saw after emptying out the storage bracelet's contents.
There were countless types of spirit materials and spirit medicines, some of which contained law powers, and setting aside the spirit treasures, pills, and scriptures for now, there were around 5,000 to 6,000 Immortal Origin Stones as well.
The spiritual light radiating from all of the Immortal Origin Stones illuminated the entire secret chamber, and with all of this, in addition to everything that he had saved up thus far, he would most likely have sufficient funds to support his own cultivation for the next few centuries.
Han Li immediately stowed the Immortal Origin Stones away before slowly sorting through the rest.
"Origin Separation Treasured Scripture?"
Han Li faltered slightly after injecting his spiritual sense into a white jade slip, and a thought immediately occurred to him, following which he hurriedly began to inspect the jade slip's contents.
By the time he removed the jade slip from his forehead, over two hours had already passed by.
The initial section of the jade slip contained a devilish True Immortal Stage cultivation art of a very high caliber by the name of the Origin Separation Yin Devil Arts. It was said that one could cultivate this cultivation art to the High Zenith Stage, and it was no lesser in rarity than his Mantra Axis Scripture.
However, no matter how formidable this cultivation art was, there was no way that Han Li would abandon the Mantra Axis Scripture for it. What he was more interested in were the secret techniques recorded in the latter section of the jade slip. In particular, there was a secret technique that allowed one to conceal their aura by sealing themselves, and that was very intriguing to Han Li.
However, these secret techniques were very difficult to grasp, and they weren't something that he could master anytime soon.
With that in mind, Han Li stowed the jade slip away before continuing to sort through everything else.
"Hmm? What's this?"
All of a sudden, Han Li spotted a strange-looking yellow ball among the treasures. It had a diameter of roughly half a foot, and there were numerous profound yellow patterns engraved onto its surface, giving it quite a mysterious appearance.
The ball had been buried under some materials earlier, so he hadn't noticed it initially. Furthermore, there were several white talismans adhered to the ball's surface, seemingly acting as a seal.
Han Li brought the ball closer to his eyes for inspection, but was still not able to see anything special about it.
Furthermore, it wasn't giving off any energy or aura fluctuations, and it didn't appear to have been a treasure.
After a moment of contemplation, he decided to try and examine the item using his spiritual sense.
However, as soon as his spiritual sense came into contact with the ball, the talismans adhered to its surface immediately began to emit dazzling white light that formed a covert array that was invisible to the naked eye, keeping his spiritual sense at bay.
Han Li was rather intrigued to see this, and he began to carefully examine these talismans.
While it was true that these talismans were quite remarkable, it was clear that someone had placed them down in a hurry, and given Han Li's mastery in talismans, it wasn't going to be difficult for him to remove them.
After a brief pause, he made a hand seal and cast a series of incantation seals into the talismans while opening his mouth to release a burst of azure flames that enveloped the golden ball.
Moments later, several dull thumps rang out in succession as all of the white talismans disintegrated into specks of white light that were devoured by the azure flames.
In the next instant, circles of spirit patterns appeared on the golden ball's surface, immediately following which beams of yellow light began to radiate from the yellow ball, making it appear as dazzling as the sun.
The restrictions in the secret chamber immediately reacted, and countless azure runes appeared on the walls, forming an azure light barrier that attempted to contain the yellow light, but it was able to quickly pierce through the light barrier.
Han Li was rather taken aback by this, and he made another hand seal to activate all of the restrictions around the cave abode, conjuring up light barriers of different colors to envelop the entire cave abode.
The dazzling yellow light continued to proliferate outward, and it was able to pierce through several more layers of restrictions, but was ultimately intercepted.
A faint crack rang out from the yellow ball, following which a series of bulges appeared on its surface, and it rapidly began to swell in size and transform.
In the span of just a few seconds, the ball transformed into a yellow-robed middle-aged man with an authoritative appearance who appeared to have been in his thirties.
This is... an immortal puppet!
The yellow-robed man had an earthy yellow complexion that was giving off a faint metallic gleam, it was giving off an immortal spiritual aura, much like a humanoid immortal treasure, much like Daoist Xie's past form.
Han Li suppressed the excitement in his heart as his gaze fell upon the yellow robe worn by the puppet.
Some of the designs on the yellow robe were ones that he had seen on many past occasions on other puppets in the Holy Puppet Sect, leading him to wonder if this puppet was also from the same sect.
With that in mind, he immediately thought back to when he first encountered Zhong Luan outside the Holy Puppet Sect's restricted area, and it occurred to him that this was most likely the very thing that Zhong Luan had ventured into the restricted area to obtain.
He had always been quite interested in puppets, and if this really were a True Immortal Stage puppet, then this would be a massive haul in itself.
Thus, Han Li immediately cast an incantation seal into the puppet's body, and two specks of light emerged in the puppet's eyes, while a layer of yellow light surfaced over its skin.
Immediately thereafter, a mountainous aura erupted forth, causing the surrounding spae and the entire cave abode to tremble violently.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺