Chapter 429: Withered Vine
Han Li made a hand seal, and his azure sword lotus flower instantly descended upon the starry light barrier while revolving incessantly.
Countless streaks of formidable sword qi were released from the sword lotus flower, raining down upon the restriction, while Patriarch Cold Flame summoned the same set of flying dagger spirit treasures as before.
The 12 flying daggers then instantly swelled to over 1,000 feet in size each at his behest, and they came crashing down upon the restriction with astonishing might.
The starry light barrier was extremely resilient, but it wasn't able to withstand this joint barrage from Han Li's duo for long, and it was only a short while before the light barrier was shattered to reveal what was underneath.
Beneath the light barrier were around a dozen blue spirit plants, each of which was several feet tall.
The stems and leaves of these spirit plants were all glittering and translucent, as if they had been fashioned out of some type of semi-transparent blue jade, and they were also giving off radiant starlight.
Much to Han Li's surprise, these blue spirit plants hadn't been taken by the person who had passed through this place before them.
A surprised look had also appeared on Lu Yuqing's face, while Patriarch Cold Flame's expression remained unchanged, indicating that he seemed to have already anticipated this.
These are Starlight Herbs!
A hint of elation flashed through Han Li's eyes as he identified these blue spirit plants.
This was a type of renowned spirit plant that contained starpower gathered from countless nights of exposure to starlight, resulting in the accumulation of extremely pure starpower, thereby making it an exceptional ingredient for refining starpower-related pills.
Judging from their size, they had to have been at least 500,000 years of age.
If he could get his hands on even just one or two of these Starlight Herbs and refine them into pills, then that would drastically shorten the amount of time it would take for him to cultivate the second half of the Great Universe Origin Arts.
Right at this moment, a streak of light suddenly flew past him, then enveloped all of the Starlight Herbs before uprooting them and sending them flying toward Patriarch Cold Flame.
He then immediately stowed all of the Starlight Herbs away without any hesitation, and Han Li's expression changed slightly upon seeing this, but he didn't say anything.
"Thank you for your help, Fellow Daoist Han. If you require my assistance for anything, please feel free to call upon me," Patriarch Cold Flame said with a smile, making no mention of splitting the Starlight Herbs between them.
Han Li turned to look at Patriarch Cold Flame in silence, while Lu Yuqing's brows furrowed slightly as she protested, "Fellow Daoist Cold Flame, you and Brother Han worked together to..."
Han Li raised a hand to cut her off before she could finish her sentence.
"Fellow Daoist Cold Flame was the one who discovered these Starlight Herbs first, so they naturally belong to him. There's no need to dwell on this matter," Han Li said in an indifferent voice, then turned and began to make his way toward the plot of land in the innermost section of the medicine garden.
Lu Yuqing took a cold glance at Patriarch Cold Flame, then departed behind Han Li.
Patriarch Cold Flame also followed along with a gleeful look in his eyes.
Having interacted with Han Li on multiple past occasions, he had developed a decent grasp of Han Li's personality and character. His original plan was for Han Li to bring up the matter of splitting the Starlight Herbs, in which case he would oblige, but in the process make Han Li owe him a favor so that he could continue to leverage Han Li's assistance.
However, to his surprise, Han Li didn't even bother to make such a request, seemingly as he didn't want to lose face.
This was even better as he could continue to exploit this personality trait of Han Li's to keep claiming more things for himself, but of course, he would do so in moderation so that he didn't turn Han Li entirely against himself.
The three of them quickly arrived at the final plot of land in the medicine garden, and Han Li briefly examined the purple restriction in front of him before making a hand seal, upon which a flurry of petals of his azure sword lotus flower flew off on their own one after another, transforming into around a dozen massive translucent swords that came crashing down upon the purple light barrier.
All of the giant swords were giving off extremely fearsome aura fluctuations and immense spiritual pressure that was making the nearby space tremble and quiver.
The giant translucent swords struck the light barrier with immense power, but all of them were repelled one after the other.
Meanwhile, the purple light barrier merely shuddered slightly before falling still again.
Han Li's brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this. The purple restriction was far more resilient than even what he had anticipated.
Lu Yuqing was also eager to help, and she began attacking the restriction with a series of giant azure blades of wind, while Patriarch Cold Flame was also contributing to the effort with his flying daggers.
The collective barrage of attacks from the trio was quite formidable, but the purple restriction remained strong, managing to hold itself intact without much difficulty.
"It looks like we won't be able to break this restriction through conventional means, so let's use the Great Five-elemental True Light again," Han Li said as he summoned the three elemental spirit treasures from before, and Patriarch Cold Flame also summoned his two flying treasures.
Moments later, a thick pillar of five-colored light came crashing down from the heavens, releasing numerous balls of five-colored light that rained down upon the purple light barrier.
A burst of rumbling rang out incessantly, and the entire medicine garden was trembling.
The purple light barrier was extremely resilient, yet even it was no match for the Great Five-elemental True Light, and after one barrage of attacks after another, the light barrier was quickly whittled down to just a thin layer.
A sharp gleam flashed through Han Li's eyes upon seeing this, and he immediately made a hand seal, upon which the dozen or so giant translucent swords came crashing down upon the purple light barrier at his behest.
Finally, the purple light barrier was unable to hold itself together any longer, and it imploded to reveal what was underneath.
Han Li's trio immediately turned their attention to what had been revealed, and as it turned out, down below was a swamp that was filled with viscous dark purple mud, with the occasional purple bubble appearing on its surface before popping with explosive force to release waves of heat coupled with bursts of purple gas.
A faint layer of purple mist was hanging over the swamp, and countless tiny arcs of lightning could be seen flashing within it, giving off a fearsome aura.
The dark purple mud was rather hideous in appearance, but it was imbued with extremely abundant spiritual power, indicating that it was no ordinary soil.
This is Lightning Aura Soil!
In order to best nurture different types of spirit plants, Han Li had invested a great deal of time into improving his understanding of spirit soils, and at this point, he could be considered to be a master in this field.
The Lightning Aura Soil was a type of extremely precious spirit soil that was ideal for nurturing lightning-attribute spirit plants, but the method to prepare it had already gone missing long ago.
Han Li had tried extensively to search for this soil or its recipe in the past, all to no avail, and he certainly wasn't expecting to see some here.
With a sweep of his sleeve, two Dao Warriors instantly appeared amid a flash of golden lightning.
He then summoned a pair of storage pouches that he tossed at the pair of Dao Warriors as he instructed, "Collect all of this soil."
The two Dao Warriors immediately obliged, beginning to collect the spirit soil in the area, and Patriarch Cold Flame's expression changed slightly upon seeing this as he also swept a sleeve through the air to collect some of the dark purple mud beside him.
Meanwhile, Lu Yuqing was looking on with slightly furrowed brows, seemingly rather disgusted by the dark purple mud.
Han Li took a glance at Patriarch Cold Flame, then turned his attention to the center of the plot of land, where there was another hemispherical purple light barrier, this one far smaller than the previous one.
He flew over to the light barrier, followed closely by Lu Yuqing, and Patriarch Cold Flame also hurriedly followed along.
This purple light barrier was identical to the one from before, except it was far smaller and nowhere near as formidable.
Han Li was able to break the light barrier with his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords without having to rely on the Great Five-elemental True Light, and a purple stone altar that was around 10 feet tall was revealed.
The altar had been entirely constructed from a type of purple crystal, and there were lightning patterns engraved upon it, seemingly forming some type of profound array.
At the top of the stone altar was yet another purple light barrier that resembled a box that concealed the top of the altar, making it impossible to see what was inside.
"How many layers of restrictions are there?" Lu Yuqing couldn't help but complain.
All of a sudden, Han Li noticed that there were two humanoid puppets laying on the ground beside the stone altar.
The puppets were dark golden in color, and they were identical to the copper puppet that Han Li had encountered while securing the Great Universe Origin Arts.
However, one of the puppets had been split in half down the middle lengthwise, while the other had been decapitated, and both of them were laying on the ground in a lifeless fashion.
The wounds on the puppets appeared to be quite fresh, clearly indicating that they had been inflicted not long ago.
Han Li's expression darkened slightly upon seeing this.
As expected, this place had already been visited as well, so whatever treasure on the stone altar had to have already been taken.
The same thought had clearly also occurred to Patriarch Cold Flame and Lu Yuqing, and a hint of dismay appeared on both of their faces.
Han Li shook his head with a hint of disappointment in his eyes, then turned his attention back to the pair of copper puppets. In particular, his gaze lingered on the decapitated puppet as a peculiar look flashed through his eyes.
In the next instant, he swept a sleeve through the air to release a burst of azure light, which swept up the pair of puppets before stowing them away.
With these two puppets, particularly the decapitated one, which still had a completely intact core, Daoist Xie would surely be able to scrounge together a complete, functional puppet.
Han Li had witnessed the power of these copper puppets, and they would definitely be of great assistance to him in battle.
Patriarch Cold Flame's brows furrowed slightly with displeasure upon seeing this, but he quickly reverted back to a neutral expression.
After gathering the puppets, Han Li flicked a finger toward the stone altar, releasing a pair of azure flying swords that swept over the purple light barrier.
The restriction wasn't all that powerful, so it was torn apart with ease, revealing a wooden frame, around which was wound a long vine that still hadn't been taken, much to Han Li's surprise.
However, the vine had withered away, and it seemed to have perished long ago.
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