Chapter 341: Nascent Soul Refinement
"I don't recall ever saying that I plan to let you live," Han Li said in an indifferent voice.
Before the nascent soul had a chance to reply, Han Li opened his mouth to release a burst of silver fire, which instantly enveloped the nascent soul, and it was none other than Han Li's Flame of Essence.
The nascent soul immediately began to howl in agony within the silver flames, but not only was it not displaying any sign of being incinerated, it was no exaggeration to say that its aura hadn't even abated in the slightest.
In a very uncommon turn of events, it seemed that the Flame of Essence was completely ineffective on the nascent soul.
Han Li's brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this, and the silver flames immediately began to swirl around the nascent soul as a tiny fiery vortex at his behest, giving off heat that was several times more intense than before.
"Han Li! The Heavenly Court won't let you get away with this!" the nascent soul howled, and it had taken on a slightly transparent quality within the fiery vortex.
However, the Flame of Essence was unable to affect the nascent soul any further beyond that.
After a brief moment of contemplation, Han Li flicked a finger through the air, releasing a streak of azure sword qi that struck the nascent soul in a flash.
A loud thump rang out as the streak of sword qi exploded, and a faint mark appeared on the nascent soul from its head to its abdomen, but the mark quickly vanished without a trace.
A hint of surprise flashed through Han Li's eyes upon seeing this.
"Fellow Daoist Han, the nascent souls of Golden Immortal cultivators are extremely resolute and are fundamentally different from True Immortal Stage nascent souls. At this rate, it's going to take at least several years for you to completely destroy it. This battle hasn't gone on for very long, but there's no guarantee that the people at the White Jade Peak haven't noticed his absence," Daoist Xie said.
"What do you suggest I do with this nascent soul then, Brother Xie? If I just let it go free, there will be no end to the troubles to come," Han Li said as his brows furrowed slightly.
"Golden Immortal Stage nascent souls are quite difficult to destroy, but only for a True Immortal. With my current Golden Immortal Stage power, I can destroy this nascent soul for you, as long as you're willing to spend the required Immortal Origin Stones," Daoist Xie replied.
Han Li's eyes immediately lit up slightly upon hearing this. "Go ahead, Brother Xie, I'm willing to spend the Immortal Origin Stones."
Daoist Xie nodded in response, then opened his mouth to release a vast expanse of golden lightning, which intertwined briefly in the air to form a dense net of lightning that ensnared the nascent soul.
Arcs of lightning were flashing incessantly over the surface of the lightning net, and it was giving off an astonishingly formidable aura, forming a golden and silver ball of light as it intertwined with the Flame of Essence.
The sound of crackling rang out incessantly as the nascent soul began to spasm violently, and it was becoming transparent at a rate that was discernible even to the naked eye.
Around 15 minutes later, Daoist Xie made a hand seal, and all of the arcs of golden lightning faded to reveal a nascent soul that was enveloped in silver flames.
Han Li's brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this, but then unfurrowed just as quickly.
The body of the nascent soul still remained, but it had already turned completely transparent with only faint traces of golden light left on its surface. Its eyes were completely lifeless, and the spiritual fluctuations that it was giving off were extremely feeble, so it was clear that the spiritual power within it had already been completely destroyed, leaving nothing more than an empty husk behind.
"Why didn't you destroy this nascent soul altogether, Brother Xie? Surely you still have some Immortal Origin Stones leftover from the 500 that I gave you," Han Li asked.
"I have no intention of saving Immortal Origin Stones for you, it's just that I suddenly recalled that Golden Immortal Stage nascent souls are a primary ingredient for refining a pill known as the Golden Soul Pill, so it would be a waste to destroy it. At this point, even if there had been any restrictions planted in the nascent soul, they would've already been completely refined, so you don't have to worry about keeping it by your side," Daoist Xie explained.
"What does this Golden Soul Pill do?" Han Li asked.
"I'm not sure. Recently, I've been recollecting tidbits of memories, and one of those contained information about the Golden Soul Pill. It seems to be quite a rare type of pill, and I'll tell you what it does if I manage to recall," Daoist Xie replied.
"Alright," Han Li replied with a nod, then withdrew his spiritual sense chain.
After that, he pulled out a jade box and placed the nascent soul inside it, then adhered a few sealing talismans to the box before stowing it away.
"Congratulations on recovering a lost treasure, Fellow Daoist Han. This treasure here is also quite a formidable one," Daoist Xie said as it handed over the Integrated Five Extremes Mountain and black inkstone that it was holding.
Han Li accepted the pair of treasures, and an excited gleam appeared in his eyes as his gaze first settled upon the black inkstone.
This was most definitely an Acquired Immortal Treasure of a very high caliber, and the Soul Destroying True Light that it was capable of releasing appeared to have contained some type of law power that could directly harm one's soul. This treasure was most likely the culprit behind his amnesia and subsequent descent into the Spirit Domain Realm.
Aside from that, the black cloud space that it carried was also quite a good trapping device.
However, he had no time to inspect this treasure on an in-depth level for now, and he turned his gaze to the Integrated Five Extremes Mountain.
He had refined this treasure in preparation for his ascension tribulation transcendence, and he had invested immeasurable time, effort, and resources into the treasure's creation. Now that he had recovered it, he couldn't help but feel a little sentimental.
Just as the silver-robed young man had declared, the current Integrated Five Extremes Mountain was already far different from what it had once been. Its basis was still the five mountains, but each mountain had been infused with many types of spirit materials, and it had also been refined using a more advanced method.
Just the thought of the restrictive ability unleashed by the silver-robed young man using this treasure was enough to get Han Li rather excited.
However, time was of the essence right now, so he didn't have time to closely inspect the pair of treasures, and he quickly stowed them away.
"We should get away from here as soon as possible, Fellow Daoist Han. We need to leave before the battle at the White Jade Peak comes to an end," Daoist Xie warned.
"I want to get out of here as well, but this restriction is quite formidable and not so easy to break through. Do you have any ways to bypass it?" Han Li asked with a wry smile.
Daoist Xie flew over to the wall of yellow mist as he spoke, and he inspected it briefly before suddenly pressing a palm flag against it, following which a layer of yellow light appeared over his hand.
Han Li faltered slightly upon seeing this, following which a hint of intrigue appeared in his eyes.
Ever since it had fully integrated itself with this puppet, Daoist Xie had become much more life-like and bore a much closer resemblance to an actual living cultivator.
Moments later, Daoist Xie withdrew its palm, and Han Li asked, "What do you think?"
"This is a very profound restriction with many interconnected layers. Whoever set up this restriction has to be an exceptional master," Daoist Xie mused.
"Is there a way to break through it?" Han Li asked.
"There is, but it's going to require a large sum of Immortal Origin Stones to activate one of this immortal puppet's abilities," Daoist Xie replied.
"How many will you need?" Han Li asked.
"In addition to what I have left, I'll need... about 300 more," Daoist Xie replied.
Han Li was rather taken aback to hear this, and a wry smile appeared on his face as he said, "That's fine, just do what you need to do."
In order to lure in the silver-robed young man so that Daoist Xie could attack him, he had already placed around 600 to 700 Immortal Origin Stones into Daoist Xie's body, and now that he was having to spend 300 more Immortal Origin Stones, that was already close to a third of his entire wealth.
It seemed that he had to be sparing in his reliance on Daoist Xie unless it was absolutely necessary. He was still hoping to be able to purchase some dao pill ingredients using his Immortal Origin Stones, and that was going to be a significant expenditure.
With that in mind, he flipped a hand over to produce a storage pouch, which he tossed at Daoist Xie.
Daoist Xie wasted no time in pulling all of the Immortal Origin Stones out of the storage pouch before directly swallowing them, then said, "I'll also require the assistance of your dao warriors."
Han Li faltered slightly upon hearing this, but he duly obliged, handing over his dao warrior gourd to Daoist Xie.
Daoist Xie made a hand seal, and a burst of bright yellow light immediately emerged at the opening of the gourd, following which a series of dark yellow beans came falling out like rain.
Before long, several hundred dao warriors beans had been tipped out, and Daoist Xie began to chant an incantation, upon which the patterns on the surface of the beans lit up in unison.
The beans began to give off a bright yellow glow, but instead of transforming into dao warriors, they expanded slightly before slowly elongating to form what appeared to have been a series of yellow wooden rods.
Bright yellow light was radiating from these wooden rods, and they connected together to form a seemingly haphazard array, but in reality, it was far more profound than it seemed.
Han Li was quite intrigued to see this.
It wasn't a rare occurrence for dao warriors to be used to set up arrays, but Han Li had never seen anyone use dao warriors as array flags as Daoist Xie was doing here, and he couldn't help but wonder if this method of dao warrior usage was something that Daoist Xie had recently recalled.
As Daoist Xie continued to chant its incantation, it released a series of incantation seals out of its hands, every single one of which fell upon the wooden rods with unerring accuracy.
All of the hundreds of wooden rods shuddered in unison, and countless translucent yellow threads rose up from them before intertwining to form a yellow array.
Immediately thereafter, Daoist Xie thrust both palms forward, and all of the wooden rods instantly flew into the wall of yellow mist, which began to churn and produce a layer of yellow light to obstruct the wooden rods.
Daoist Xie was making a rapid string of hand seals, and countless bursts of yellow light were rapidly circulating throughout the yellow array, forcibly nullifying the yellow light being released by the wall of mist as the wooden rods slowly progressed forward.
The section of the wall of mist that was encompassed within the yellow array began to rapidly dissipate, creating a huge indentation.
As the yellow mist scattered, a translucent light barrier with lights of different colors surging over its surface was revealed, and it appeared to have been another profound restriction.
Han Li gave a slight nod at the sight of the array, while Daoist Xie sat down with its legs crossed as it continued to chant its incantation.
All of a sudden, thick arcs of golden lightning emerged over its body, giving off bursts of violent law fluctuations that proliferated in all directions.
All of the world's origin qi in a radius of thousands of kilometers was stirred up, forming balls of purple light that converged toward Daoist Xie.
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