Chapter 363: Arrival of the Tribulation
Han Li's expression darkened slightly as he withdrew his flame of Flame of Essence with a sweep of his sleeve, then retrieved the failed pill from inside the cauldron.
This time, he hadn't been able to make much improvement, only successfully integrating one more ingredient before failing on the second one.
The closer he came to the conclusion of the pill refinement process, the more difficult it became, and his brows were tightly furrowed.
With the Eye of Truth, he could review the pill refinement process however many times he wanted, so he was certain that he would eventually find success, but the problem was that he had only prepared nine batches of pill refinement ingredients, and there had already been used up, so there were only six left.
He took a deep breath and cast aside that train of thought, then trained his Eye of Truth on the failed pill once again.
A month later, Han Li commenced his fourth pill refinement.
Everything was progressing smoothly, and he quickly reached the stage where he had previously failed.
Thanks to his extensive revision, he was able to complete this step with ease as well, smoothly integrating a piece of golden honey into the pill.
He took a moment to compose himself, then turned to find that there were still five ingredients left.
He gritted his teeth as he transferred the next ingredient into the cauldron, then began making a rapid string of hand seals with a look of intense focus on his face, pushing the limits of his pill refinement abilities.
Inside the cauldron, the pill was revolving on the spot with spiritual light of different colors flashing over its surface.
With each ingredient that was added, Han Li had to regulate the interactions between the new ingredient and the other ingredients that had already been integrated into the pill to reach a new equilibrium. It was like pouring cold water into hot oil while also ensuring that no oil spilled out.
Han Li was doing everything in his power to mediate the clashes between the medicinal power of all of the ingredients in the pill, trying to stabilize everything, but his efforts proved to be futile.
A dull thud rang out, and Han Li's expression instantly darkened once again.
This time, he had failed without being able to integrate even a single additional ingredient.
He sat in silence for a while before retrieving the failed pill and inspecting it through his Eye of Truth.
A month later, the fifth pill refinement began.
Once again, progress was very smooth, but even though he had already exercised the utmost caution when adding in the next ingredient down the line, the process still concluded in failure.
A wry smile appeared on Han Li's face, and he repeated the same process of revision.
Two or three months passed by in the blink of an eye.
Han Li was seated with his legs crossed in his cave abode, cycling through a rapid string of hand seals.
Faint crackling sounds were ringing out occasionally from within the cauldron, and even though the lid of the cauldron, flashes of spiritual light of different colors could be seen.
There was also a strong medicinal aroma in the air, and this time, all of the ingredients had already been transferred into the cauldron.
During these past few months, progress had remained agonizingly slow despite Han Li's best efforts, and he was only able to successfully integrate one more ingredient each time.
Even though he had managed to gradually overcome one hurdle after another, he had exhausted all of his ingredients, and the pill in the cauldron at this moment contained the final batch.
He had already failed at this stage last time, so if the trend of one additional successful ingredient integration per pill refinement attempt continued, then this would finally be the one where he was met with success.
What he had to worry about right now was the upcoming pill tribulation.
He only had this final batch of ingredients left, and if he couldn't ward off the pill tribulation, then he wasn't going to get another chance for at least the next few centuries.
He still had some seeds and seedlings of things like the Dewform Herb and the Heavenmade Ginseng Root, so all he would have to do would be to mature them using the Heaven Controlling Vial spirit liquid, but the other ingredients that weren't spirit plants weren't going to be so easy to obtain.
They would have to be purchased using Immortal Origin Stones, and some of them were not so easy to come by. In particular, there were several primary ingredients that he had only found in Tao Yu's storage tool, and he had no idea how much time and effort it would've taken to gather them on his own.
Not only was he currently in the Black Wind Sea, it was impossible to purchase those ingredients even from the Transient Guild.
Hence, this was his final chance, and he couldn't afford for anything to go wrong.
With that in mind, Han Li reaffirmed his focus, observing all of the changes taking place in the pill cauldron with his spiritual sense.
At this moment, all of the ingredients in the pill were clashing violently against one another like a chaotic pot of boiling water, and even though he had identified the reason for his previous failure during his extensive revision, he was still having a great deal of trouble keeping everything in check.
Time slowly passed by, and Han Li gradually entered an immersive state of tranquility, as if his heart had transformed into the surface of a still lake.
The rate at which he was making hand seals began to slow down, but all of his movements had become more precise and profound.
Incantation seals were streaming out of his hands into the cauldron, and the originally incredibly complex situation in the cauldron had suddenly become very simple in his eyes, allowing him to control everything with ease.
All of the clashes taking place in the pill began to subside, and the pill refinement process was rapidly nearing its conclusion.
A faint smile appeared on his face, and he could feel that his pill refinement abilities had broken through a bottleneck and reached a whole new level.
He took a deep breath as a serious look reappeared on his face, and he suddenly switched to a different hand seal.
A burst of loud rumbling akin to claps of thunder rang out within the cauldron, but this was due to all of the surging energy inside rather than the detonation of the pill.
The lights of different colors flashing within the cauldron also became brighter and brighter while gradually fusing together to form pure golden light.
Han Li's eyes lit up upon seeing this, and he knew that this was a precursor of the pill's formation.
His hand seals became more urgent, while the golden light within the cauldron became more and more radiant, and the medicinal aroma in the air also became more pronounced.
Right at this moment, the sound ringing out within the cauldron abruptly took a turn, resembling an animalistic roar.
All of a sudden, a loud thump rang out, and a burst of dazzling golden light erupted out of the cauldron, sending its lid flying, while a longan-sized golden pill flew out from within.
Streaks of fiery golden light erupted out of the pill, forming a series of golden halos that spread through the air in all directions.
The pill was giving off a burst of incredibly profound time law fluctuations that approached the Heavenly Dao, and Han Li was ecstatic to see that there were two golden marks on its surface.
Never had he thought that he would be able to refine a second-tier dao pill. Perhaps this was due to the abundance of time law powers in the time crystal, or perhaps it was due to some other factor.
In any case, a second-tier dao pill was going to be far more efficacious than a first-tier one.
Right at this moment, countless specks of golden light suddenly began to appear in the clear blue sky up above, quickly forming a vast expanse of surging golden clouds.
The golden clouds had no end in sight, and it was as if they had taken up the entire sky, illuminating even the sea down below a bright golden color.
Vast law fluctuations were surging out of the golden clouds, while all of the world's origin qi within a radius of close to 100,000 kilometers was churning violently.
The law fluctuations emanating from the golden clouds were so immense that they were detectable even to cultivators close to 1,000,000 kilometers away.
The golden cloud was also churning violently while becoming denser and denser, and before long, it had formed an opaque golden barrier that completely kept out the light of the sun.
The entire sea was illuminated a bright golden color, but there was an incredibly heavy sensation in the air, as if the sky were about to fall.
Han Li's brows furrowed slightly as he sensed what was happening outside.
He had seen records of pill tribulations before, and he hadn't anticipated it to be so formidable.
A burst of loud rumbling rang out within the golden cloud, and a vast golden vortex appeared, rapidly revolving as rays of incredibly bright golden light appeared at its center.
A burst of crushing law fluctuations surged out of the vortex, descending upon the entire cave abode.
Countless cracks began to appear on all of the walls of the cave abode, and all of a sudden, Daoist Xie appeared in the sky above the cave abode amid a flash of golden lightning.
It raised its head to look up at the golden cloud, and a hint of emotion flashed past its wooden face.
Right at this moment, the golden vortex in the sky abruptly brightened, and a beam of piercing golden light surged out from within, hurtling down toward the cave abode below.
The golden light contained countless golden runes that were flashing erratically while giving off formidable time law power fluctuations that were filled with aggressive intent.
Daoist Xie made no effort to stop the beam of golden light, merely standing still on the spot.
Right at this moment, the beam of golden light struck the cave abode before piercing directly into it.
However, the restrictions and walls of the cave abode remained completely unharmed, and the golden light passed right through them as if it had no substance.
Han Li was quite startled by this turn of events.
The pill tribulation had arrived far quicker than he had anticipated.
He hurriedly made a hand seal, and his Mantra Treasured Axis appeared behind him before releasing countless golden ripples that instantly enveloped the golden dao pill.
At the same time, he opened his mouth to release the Seven Bright Star Rings, which became interconnected with one another to form a single large ring.
The ring released a burst of dazzling starlight to form a light barrier with countless stars flashing on its surface, as if it were a miniature starry sky.
Countless tiny starlight runes were surging over the surface of the light barrier while giving off hints of law fluctuations.
Before Han Li had a chance to do anything else, the beam of golden light came crashing down like lightning upon the starlight barrier, which immediately brightened considerably as it attempted to keep the beam of golden light at bay.
However, the beam of golden light was able to pass through it just as it had the ceiling of the cave abode, and it struck the dao pill with unerring accuracy.
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