Chapter 314: Fusion
Han Li faltered slightly upon hearing this, then said, "You'll be harmed as well if the process fails? That's something that I failed to consider. Having said that, risk and reward always come hand in hand. If you manage successfully fuse with that immortal puppet, you'll immediately attain Golden Immortal Stage power, so I think it's still worth a try. Are you willing to take a gamble, Brother Xie?"
After slaying Zhong Luan, Han Li had been able to spend the past 200 years in relative peace, but he had never been able to shake off this prevailing sense of apprehension. Hence, after accumulating sufficient resources, he had constantly been cultivating arduously in the hope that he would be able to manifest a time law thread after reaching the late-True Immortal Stage so that he would be better equipped to take on Golden Immortal cultivators, but that endeavor had proven to be unsuccessful up to this point.
Now that he had been presented with the opportunity to potentially gain a Golden Immortal Stage ally, he naturally didn't want to pass it up.
Daoist Xie fell into a hesitant silence.
"I won't force you to make any decision on this matter, Brother Xie. Also, there's one thing that I must make clear ahead of time: if the fusion is successful, you will be fused as one with the puppet and the primary bean, thereby strengthening your connection to me, and due to the involvement of the primary bean, you'll be more firmly under my control. This is unavoidable, and it's something for you to consider," Han Li said in a candid fashion.
Daoist Xie remained silent for a while longer, then looked up at Han Li as it said, "Alright, I'm willing to give it a try as long as you don't forget the promise you made to me back in the Spirit Realm."
"Alright. In that case, I'll begin setting up the array right away," Han Li replied with a nod.
A month passed by in a flash.
During that time, Han Li had opened up a larger secret chamber in his cave abode, within which was a complex array with eight lengths of Lightning Restraining Wood with runes inscribed all over them distributed throughout.
Various types of materials, including Infinity Sand, had been placed into the nodes of the array, and there were also Immortal Origin Stones embedded into several indentations around the array.
The yellow-robed immortal puppet was seated at the center of the array with its legs crossed, and Han Li was standing outside the array as he flipped a hand over to produce a golden metal ball.
A string of mechanical clicking rang out, and the golden ball quickly transformed into a golden crab.
"Everything is ready, Brother Xie. You can begin," Han Li said as he turned to the golden crab.
Daoist Xie offered no response, enveloping itself in a ball of golden lightning before flying toward the yellow-robed puppet's chest and vanishing into it in a flash.
Han Li immediately sat down with his legs crossed upon seeing this, then made a hand seal as he began to chant an incantation.
A burst of yellow light emerged within the secret chamber amid a burst of buzzing, and gusts of yellow wind began to sweep over the array, forming a yellow vortex that enveloped the immortal puppet while also sweeping up all of the materials laid out across the array.
Immediately thereafter, a series of antiquated runes flew out of the immortal puppet's robes before flying into the vortex.
As soon as the spirit materials in the vortex came into contact with these runes, they immediately disintegrated into powder before surging toward the immortal puppet.
At the same time, Han Li flipped a hand over to produce one of his two primary beans, then tossed it forward, and the primary bean fell into the array in a flash.
Upon entering the array, the primary bean hovered above the immortal puppet's head, and several runes immediately adhered themselves to it as well, but it didn't disintegrate. Instead, it abruptly lit up and produced a Dao Warrior Tree projection.
The projection was around 10 feet tall, and it was rooted to the array with the yellow-robed puppet enveloped within its trunk.
Han Li made a hand seal before leaning forward and laying a palm against the ground, and as soon as he did this, all of the Immortal Origin Stones in the array lit up in unison, releasing a stream of immortal spiritual power into the trunk of the Dao Warrior Tree projection through its roots.
The tree projection began to glow brightly, and all of the broken down spirit materials vanished into the immortal puppet's body, while the yellow vortex faded away.
The sound of flowing electricity rang out as the runes on the eight lengths of Lightning Restraining Wood situated around the array lit up, and arcs of golden electricity shot out like a nest of lightning snakes before converging toward the immortal puppet.
At the same time, a burst of purplish-golden lightning erupted from the puppet's chest, and it was as if it had been draped into a large cloak of lightning.
This was a clear sign that Daoist Xie had already begun attempting to fuse itself with the puppet, and Han Li immediately switched to a different hand seal upon seeing this.
Right at this moment, a rumbling thunderclap suddenly rang out, and a giant golden crab projection appeared behind the immortal puppet with lightning flashing all over its body.
Han Li's attention was focused fully on the array in front of him as he thrust his palms forward, and the immortal spiritual power in his body surged forth like a mighty river.
Bursts of rumbling rang out incessantly within the secret chamber, and the walls also began to tremble violently.
Fortunately, Han Li had already anticipated this, and he had set up stabilization and isolation arrays in advance. Otherwise, these tremors would've caused quite a disturbance over the entire Crimson Dawn Peak.
As the tremors grew more violent, the yellow and purplish-golden light in the secret chamber also began to flash more erratically.
Han Li continued to cycle through a string of hand seals to maintain the outflow of immortal spiritual power, and he had also released spiritual sense threads to connect the primary bean, the immortal puppet, and Daoist Xie in order to forcibly integrate them.
Inside the secret chamber, the golden crab projection and the Dao Warrior Tree projection shrank down in unison from around 10 feet tall to only six to seven feet, then to two to three feet, and the yellow light and lightning enveloping them also began to converge toward the center.
Only after a long while did all of the light completely condense into a fist-sized ball of golden light that was hovering in front of the immortal puppet's chest, and a tiny tree projection and a golden crab could be seen within the ball of light.
At this point, almost all of Han Li's immortal spiritual power had flowed into the array, and his spiritual sense had been severely depleted as well, resulting in a slightly pale complexion.
"Fuse!" he roared, and in the next instant, all that remained of the immortal spiritual power in his body surged toward the immortal puppet without any reservation.
A faint crack rang out from the ground, and the Immortal Origin Stones embedded into the array also released all of their immortal spiritual power before shattering into pieces.
A vortex of light abruptly appeared at the immortal puppet's chest to devour the ball of golden light, and a thick bolt of lightning erupted out of the puppet's body amid a rumbling thunderclap.
It resembled a pillar of purplish-golden lightning that erupted into the heavens, blasting straight through the ceiling of the secret chamber and causing the entire Crimson Dawn Peak to shudder violently.
Thankfully, the pillar of lightning faded after only a few seconds.
Inside the secret chamber, Han Li's immortal spiritual power had been completely exhausted, so he could only withstand the blast of lightning with his Profound Immortal body alone, and he was sent crashing heavily into the wall behind him before throwing up a mouthful of blood.
After steadying himself, he took a glance at the immortal puppet, which remained completely still. He sat down with his legs crossed once again, then swallowed a yellow pill before summoning an Immortal Origin Stone that he held in his hand before closing his eyes to meditate.
Only after around 15 minutes had passed did he reopen his eyes before spitting out the remaining mixture of blood and saliva in his mouth.
All of a sudden, the immortal puppet's eyelids fluttered, and it opened its eyes to reveal a pair of golden pupils.
Han Li's expression remained unchanged, but internally, he was extremely excited as he said, "Congratulations on attaining a new body, Brother Xie. I was concerned that something would go wrong with the fusion process, but it appears my concerns were unnecessary."
The aura emanating from the immortal puppet's body indicated that it already possessed early-Golden Immortal Stage power.
Perhaps it was due to the involvement of the primary bean, but a spiritual restriction had already been planted deep in the puppet, ensuring that it wouldn't be able to turn on Han Li.
"It's all thanks to your help, Fellow Daoist Han. However, even though the fusion process was successful, due to the integration of the primary bean, the power in my body is a little chaotic, so I'll have to go into seclusion for a while for everything to settle down," Daoist Xie continued.
"That's not a problem. If you require any spirit stones or resources, feel free to tell me," Han Li replied with a nod.
Daoist Xie nodded expressionlessly in response, then closed its eyes to meditate.
Only now did Han Li allow a hint of elation to creep into his eyes, and he didn't linger in the secret chamber any longer, getting up to depart.
With this matter settled, he had to turn his attention to something else that he had to do.
......
A streak of azure light descended from the heavens, landing in front of the golden palace on the Gourd Peak to reveal Han Li.
He took a glance up at the plaque above the palace's entrance, then made his way inside.
The Immortal Medicine Pavilion was filled with medicine cabinets and was quite lively and bustling. At the moment, Ye Nanfeng was attending to an elderly man in front of a cabinet near the entrance.
As soon as he spotted Han Li, Ye Nanfeng gave him a smile and a wave.
Han Li nodded in response, then began to browse through the medicine cabinets on his own.
Before long, the elderly man seemed to have found what he was looking for, and he promptly departed after paying for his purchase.
Ye Nanfeng then quickly approached Han Li with a smile as he greeted, "Long time no see, Elder Li."
"It seems like your Immortal Medicine Pavilion has added a great deal of medicinal ingredients to its catalog since my last visit, Elder Ye," Han Li remarked as he withdrew his gaze from one of the medicine cabinets.
"You have a keen eye, Elder Li. It's all thanks to Dao Lord Mu that we've gotten all of this new inventory," Ye Nanfeng replied with a smile.
Han Li faltered slightly upon hearing this, then asked, "Dao Lord Mu of the Flying Feather Peak?"
"Is there another Dao Lord Mu in our sect?" Ye Nanfeng asked.
"That's not what I meant. It's just that I heard that Dao Lord Mu has already been in seclusion for close to 100,000 years, could it be that he recently came out of seclusion?" Han Li asked.
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