Chapter 373: Response
Han Li took a deep breath to compose himself.
He had only made an initial foray into his cultivation of the Great Universe Origin Arts. Furthermore, he had already previously opened up the first seven profound acupoints, and that was why he had been able to progress so quickly, but the remaining 11 profound acupoints most likely weren't going to be so easy to cultivate.
With that in mind, Han Li exhaled before closing his eyes again.
The array on the stone platform began to operate once again, drawing a vast expanse of starlight down from the heavens and funneling it into Han Li's body.
Five years passed by in the blink of an eye.
On this day, a thunderous commotion suddenly rang out from the island, resonating across the entire heavens.
In the next instant, a glowing blue figure rose up into the sky from the island before flying around in the air like a prowling dragon.
All of the space within a radius of hundreds of kilometers around the island was buzzing and trembling incessantly, while massive waves swept over the surface of the sea, and all of the clouds in the sky were also scattered far and wide.
Some time later, the commotion ceased, and the blue figure also stopped in their tracks, revealing none other than Han Li.
At this moment, his entire body was enveloped within a translucent blue film of light that almost had a substantial form.
The film of light was adhered to the surface of his skin, and it was very similar to the True Extreme Film that had arisen following his attainment of his True Extreme Physique.
At this point, it was more appropriate to call it a suit of True Extreme Armor rather than a True Extreme Film.
Numerous streaks of blue light were surging incessantly over the film of light, making it appear as if there were countless stars orbiting around Han Li's body.
On top of that, there were 18 specks of blue light shimmering on Han Li's chest and abdomen.
After five years of arduous cultivation, he had finally mastered the first half of the Great Universe Origin Arts.
Even he was rather surprised by how quickly he had been able to master this cultivation art.
Given his past experience, he had originally predicted that it would've taken him a considerable amount of time to master this cultivation art, a projected time span of at least several dozen years, yet during his cultivation, he discovered that all of the bottlenecks that he thought he would encounter simply failed to pose any resistance, and he was able to open up one profound acupoint after another with ease.
All of these profound acupoints overlapped with the immortal acupoints that he had previously opened.
In retrospect, he could only speculate that perhaps the immortal acupoints that he had previously opened made it easier for him to subsequently cultivate profound acupoints, and that was why he was able to master the first half of the Great Universe Origin Arts in such a short time.
Initially, he had been concerned that he wouldn't have sufficient Starheaven Stones, but as things turned out, he had some to spare.
What was even more encouraging to him was that the immortal acupoints that overlapped with his profound acupoints had been significantly bolstered and expanded.
Right at this moment, Han Li let loose a low roar as he threw a punch at the sea down below.
A burst of tremendous force erupted out of his fist before striking the surface of the sea, and a massive fist-sized black hole was smashed into the sea, parting all of the seawater around it.
The force unleashed by Han Li's punch pierced straight through the waves before slamming into the seabed, creating another unfathomably deep hole, at the bottom of which faint glimmers of red light could be seen.
Han Li then unclenched his fist before bringing his hand down in a chopping motion, and the sea down below was parted once again as a massive trench emerged.
Once again, the seabed was also split apart, forming an enormous rift that was just as unfathomably deep as the hole from before.
Han Li slowly withdrew his palm and gave a pleased nod upon seeing this.
Even though he had only mastered the first half of the Great Universe Origin Arts, his already extremely formidable physical body had been significantly enhanced.
He had only put less than 30% of his strength into the two strikes that he had unleashed just now, yet they were already extremely formidable blows.
The True Extreme Film around Han Li's body faded at his behest, and he flew back down onto the island, quickly descending onto the stone platform.
He then swept a sleeve through the air to release a burst of azure light that enveloped the entire stone platform, and a burst of dull rumbling rang out as the stone platform was separated from the mountaintop.
After that, Han Li began to chant an incantation, and the stone platform rapidly shrank down before being stowed away.
Even though he had already mastered the first half of the Great Universe Origin Arts, this stone platform was something that had taken him a great deal of effort to construct, so he naturally wasn't just going to discard it.
After doing all of this, Han Li flew back to his cave abode and arrived in his bedroom.
During these past five years, he had been going through a constant cycle of cultivating the Great Universe Origin Arts at night and recovering from his injuries during the day, so it had already been a very long time since he had taken a proper rest.
Now that he had successfully mastered the cultivation art, he was finally allowing himself to relax, and a wave of exhaustion instantly swept over him.
Before long, he fell into a deep sleep on his bed, and only after a day and a night did he awaken before emerging from his bedroom, completely reinvigorated.
The first thing that he did was check on the medicine garden, where he discovered that all of the spirit plants were thriving as usual.
The giant ape puppet had followed Han Li's instructions, using most of the spirit liquid produced by the Heaven Controlling Vial on the primary bean, and at this point, it had already sprouted, so Han Li could look forward to another harvest of Dao Warriors soon.
From there, Han Li explored all of the other parts of his cave abode briefly before arriving in his secret chamber, where he sat down and began to consider his future plans.
At the moment, his top priorities were to find the second half of the Spirit Refinement Technique and make a breakthrough to the Golden Immortal Stage.
However, both of these objectives were rather difficult to achieve in the Black Wind Sea, and he couldn't help but be tempted to leave this secluded region.
Several centuries had already passed by, so the efforts that the Northern Glacial Immortal Region was taking to hunt him down would've surely lessened significantly. On top of that, he had become far more powerful than back when he faced Tao Yu in battle.
At his current level of power, he was confident that he would be able to take care of Tao Yu even without Daoist Xie's assistance.
As soon as this thought appeared in his mind, it immediately began to take root.
Even though he had made significant strides in his cultivation during his time in the Black Wind Sea, it had also been a very miserable experience.
After some extensive consideration, Han Li decided not to leave the Black Wind Sea for now. At the very least, he had to get a good grasp on the situation in the outside world first.
With that in mind, he put on his Transient Guild mask and made a routine examination of the missions that he had previously released.
All of a sudden, an ecstatic look appeared on his face.
He had received a response on his Spirit Refinement Technique acquisition mission.
He immediately made a hand seal, and a burst of azure light emerged from the passage of text detailing the mission.
Around 15 minutes later, the burst of azure light flew out into Han Li's secret chamber, where it took on the form of a gray figure.
The figure was dressed in a gray cloak with an azure cat mask on their face that carried the number "16".
The figure behind the mask inspected Han Li with a sharp and piercing gaze, while Han Li cupped his fist in a salute and said, "Greetings, Fellow Daoist."
The gray figure merely nodded in response.
"You've taken on my mission, so I presume you already know what I want, right?" Han Li asked.
"There's no need to be so ambiguous about it, Fellow Daoist," the gray figure chuckled in a slightly raspy voice. "There are all types of shady dealings taking place in the Transient Guild. You're looking for the second half of the Spirit Refinement Technique, isn't that right?"
Han Li raised an eyebrow as he smiled and said, "In that case, I won't waste any time. Do you have the second half of the cultivation art, Fellow Daoist?"
"Of course," the gray figure replied, "Why else would I have taken on your mission?"
"That's good to hear. Can we finalize things today? Rest assured, I'll be sure to offer you satisfactory compensation in exchange for the cultivation art," Han Li immediately replied.
"The compensation that you're offering is indeed quite substantial, but the second half of the Spirit Refinement Technique is extremely valuable, so I'm afraid what you're offering won't be sufficient," the gray figure said.
Han Li's brows furrowed slightly upon hearing this, and he asked, "In that case, what do you propose, Fellow Daoist?"
"If you really want to obtain the second half of the Spirit Refinement Technique, then come to this place in a month, and we'll speak in person," the gray figure replied before specifying a location.
Before Han Li had a chance to reply, the gray figure ended the communication.
Han Li's brows furrowed even tighter upon seeing this, and he slowly removed his mask.
He then flipped a hand over to produce the jade slip that contained the map of the Black Wind Sea, then directed his gaze toward the location specified by the gray figure, which was a location that was truly on the very outskirts of the Black Wind Sea.
Han Li stared at the jade slip in silence, and there was a contemplative look on his face.
Only after sitting in silence for half a day did he raise his head with a determined expression, seemingly having arrived at some type of decision.
After that, he stowed the jade slip away, then rose to his feet and quickly made his way to his medicine garden.
He slowly swept his gaze across his medicine garden, then abruptly began making a string of hand seals to release numerous streaks of azure light.
All of the restrictions in the entire medicine garden were instantly undone, and a series of array tools flew out of the garden before landing in his grasp.
In the blink of an eye, the entire garden had been deconstructed.
Immediately thereafter, Han Li released more streaks of azure light out of his hands to stow away all of the spirit plants in the garden along with the spirit soil beneath them.
The primary bean was also stowed away, and it didn't take long before the entire garden had been cleared out.
After emptying out the medicine garden, he quickly departed and stowed away everything else in the cave abode as well.
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