Chapter 313: Exploring an Alternative Path
All of a sudden, Han Li switched to a different hand seal, and the golden patterns on the golden platform instantly lit up as a pillar of golden lightning erupted directly upward, striking the light barrier up above before splitting up into countless arcs of golden lightning.
The two primary beans were situated at the very center of the pillar of lightning, while hundreds of arcs of lightning erupted in all directions to form a golden net that encompassed all of the surrounding beans.
Within the net of lightning, all of the beans were interconnected by strands of lightning that resembled thin branches, while the pillar of golden lightning beneath the primary beans resembled the main trunk, giving the entire setup the appearance of a small golden lightning tree.
The wisps of spiritual power released by the spirit stones on the ground flowed through the lightning tree's trunk and branches and into the beans, causing all of the lightning veins on their surfaces to glow with dazzling radiance.
Han L felt as if he were looking at a golden tree that was laden with fruit, and a pleased look appeared on his face.
He took a deep breath before switching to yet another hand seal, and the entire array instantly shuddered as specks of black light began to appear on many of the nodes in the array, then connected together to form an extremely peculiar bestial design.
The beast resembled a cow, but it had the horns of a dragon. It appeared to have been quite massive in stature, and its round belly was riddled with antiquated runes that were giving off formidable lightning power fluctuations.
What was even more peculiar was that the beast only had a single leg, making it resemble a giant black hammer, and trailing behind it was a whip-like tail.
This was a Lightning Kui that was an extremely renowned spirit beast in the Immortal Realm, and it was born with the ability to control Nine Heavens True Lightning. It would often pound its belly with its own tail to produce rumbling thunderclaps that warded off all evil and malicious entities.
As soon as the bestial design took shape, Han Li took a deep breath, and he knew that the most important moment in the Dao Warrior refinement process was about to arrive.
He joined his palms in a new hand seal, then began to chant an incantation, and as he did so, the Lightning Kui diagram on the ground began to glow with black light before rising up into the air, passing through all of the beans to reach the light barrier up above.
The blue light in Han Li's eyes grew even brighter, and translucent threads formed by his spiritual sense began to fly out of his glabella before hurtling into the golden lightning tree, and at the same time, he was also sweeping his hand incessantly through the air.
As he did this, all of the beans hanging from the golden lightning tree began to tremble slightly, and specks of black light began to appear around the lightning veins on the beans, indicating that the rune inscription process had officially begun.
Outside the array, Han Li's hands were moving in a rapid blur, yet the black veins that were appearing on the beans inside the array were doing so at an extremely slow rate.
Inscribing runes was an extremely painstaking process that was very taxing on one's spiritual sense, and the average True Immortal would've most likely divided the beans up into batches for rune inscription to lessen the strain on their spiritual sense.
While this was a feasible option, the downside was that due to the fact that the beans were refined in batches, only the batch of beans that had refined with the primary bean would have a strong connection to the primary bean, while the same couldn't be said for all of the other beans.
Under most circumstances, this wouldn't have had much of a negative impact, and the Dao Warriors would've still been able to function as normal, but if the Dao Warriors were required to set up arrays, just as the Golden Dao Warriors had done, then their reactions would've been slightly slower.
Thanks to Han Li's enormous spiritual sense, he was able to refine all of the beans in a single batch.
Time slowly passed by, and a month flew by in the blink of an eye.
Han Li was still completely engrossed in his work, oblivious to the passage of time.
He brought his palms together in front of his chest, and the final inscriptions were made on all of the beans in the array, following which the inscribed runes began to radiate dazzling black light.
The blue light in Han Li's eyes faded upon seeing this, and there was a slightly weary look on his face, but he was elated to have finally completed this process.
The light glowing from the array in the secret chamber also gradually dimmed as all of the arcs of golden lightning began to converge toward the pair of primary beans, while the lightning light barrier vanished.
Shortly thereafter, the golden lightning also vanished, and all of the beans fell back into the golden platform.
Han Li pulled out the yellow gourd, then patted its underside, and a burst of yellow light immediately appeared at its opening, releasing a burst of suction force that sucked in all of the beans.
However, instead of allowing the pair of primary beans to be sucked into the gourd, he stowed them away into his chest pocket instead.
After that he exhaled deeply as he produced an azure pill, which he consumed before closing his eyes to meditate.
The next day.
In a certain snowy valley within the territory of the Crimson Dawn Peak, a streak of azure light descended out of the sky, then faded to reveal Han Li.
He swept his gaze across the valley, then flew over to a relatively flat and open area.
There, he removed the yellow gourd from his waist, then chanted an incantation, and the the opening of the gourd immediately lit up with yellow radiance, following which a string of yellow beans flew out in rapid succession before landing on the ground.
As soon as the beans landed in the surrounding area, each of them instantly transformed into an armored Dao Warrior that stood at around 10 feet in height.
They were rather similar to Golden Dao Warriors in appearance, but they were wearing suits of armor with lightning veins inscribed upon them, and all several hundred of them had arranged themselves into a uniform array, presenting a formidable sight to behold.
Han Li flicked a finger through the air, and a streak of azure sword qi swept through the air before striking one of the Dao Warriors on the chest.
The Dao Warrior was instantly sent flying with a resounding boom before landing heavily on the ground to create a huge indentation.
In the next instant, the Dao Warrior sprang out of the crater, and its armor had already pierced through, while a gash had also been sliced into its chest, but the gash wasn't very deep and didn't appear to have been affecting its movements at all.
Han Li gave a slight nod upon seeing this.
He had only used around one percent of his power to unleash that streak of sword qi, but it still would've been too much for the average Grand Ascension cultivator to withstand, and the fact that it was only able to slightly wound this Dao Warrior indicated that its defenses were even more formidable than he anticipated.
After a brief moment of contemplation, Han Li decided to pit the Dao Warriors against each other. Arcs of golden lightning flashed over their suits of armor, and they rushed into the valley at his behest, displaying far superior speed to the Golden Dao Warriors that Han Li had faced in the past.
Upon entering the valley, the Dao Warriors immediately split up into groups of two to engage in battle, and bursts of loud rumbling akin to formidable thunderclaps instantly rang out.
The entire valley began to tremble violently, triggering avalanches on all of the nearby mountains.
After some observation, Han Li discovered that these Dao Warriors were very similar to the Golden Dao Warriors in their style of battle in that they were just as reckless and uncaring for their own safety.
However, these Dao Warriors were clearly displaying superior regenerative abilities, able to quickly recover from all injuries as long as they weren't completely destroyed, and that was a very encouraging sight for Han Li.
After that, Han Li controlled the Dao Warriors to set up a few arrays, but the results weren't that great. However, he knew that this was due to a lack of practice, so he didn't pay it much heed.
He was already very pleased with the power being displayed by the Dao Warriors, and he stowed them away before returning to his cave abode.
After entering his secret chamber, he flipped a hand over to produce a golden metal ball, then called out, "Brother Xie..."
Moments later, several rifts appeared on the golden ball, out of which a series of thin metallic limbs emerged, and the ball transformed into a palm-sized golden crab amid a string of metallic clicking.
"Why have you called upon me, Fellow Daoist Han?" Daoist Xie asked as it looked up at Han Li from the palm of his hand.
"I recently came across an array that can integrate a Dao Warrior primary bean with a puppet, and I wanted to discuss it with you," Han Li replied.
"Are you considering fusing a primary bean with that immortal puppet, Fellow Daoist Han? I'm afraid that's not going to work on an immortal puppet that's missing its core," Daoist Xie said.
Han Li remained unfazed, and he smiled as he urged, "Don't be in such a hurry to shut down the idea, Brother Xie. Why don't you take a look at this primary bean first?"
He then flipped his other hand over to produce one of the primary beans, which had a series of golden lightning veins over its surface, as well as an image of the Lightning Kui beast.
Han Li set the primary bean down beside Daoist Xie, and the latter was immediately intrigued.
It made a lap around the primary bean, inspecting it carefully, then looked up at Han Li as it mused, "This primary bean possesses both earth and lightning attributes. Are you thinking..."
"That's right," Han Li interjected. "You were unable to fuse with the puppet due to mismatching attributes, but with this primary bean acting as an intermediary, perhaps it'll work."
Daoist Xie was silent for a moment, then said, "That is indeed a potentially feasible method... Can you show me the integration array?"
Han Li offered the stone shard to Daoist Xie, who grabbed onto it with one of its pincers.
A short while later, it released the stone shard, then turned to Han Li as it said in a solemn voice, "The lightning array that I asked you to set up earlier is one that works in a slow and subtle fashion, yet this array is far more aggressive. If the process fails, this priceless primary bean will for sure be destroyed, and that immortal puppet and I will most likely be harmed as well. Are you sure you're willing to take this risk?"
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