Chapter 473: Tallying the Spoils
Han Li's brows furrowed slightly upon hearing this.
Even though he had managed to recover Daoist Xie and Jin Tong, he still had no idea what had happened during the 300 years immediately after his ascension. Furthermore, with the way that things were progressing, he became more and more convinced that there were some very complex circumstances involved, and that there was a very good chance he had been swept up in some type of conspiracy.
On top of that, he had made quite a few enemies, some that he was aware of, while others were still in the shadows, and most of these enemies were present in the Infernal Frost Immortal Manor. Fortunately, he had somehow stumbled into a massive opportunity, allowing him to progress all the way to the mid-Golden Immortal Stage.
With his current cultivation base, he now had the power required to protect himself. As for his lost memories, he would just have to find a way to recover them after he left the immortal manor.
"Let's go and hunt down those Golden Immortals you were talking about, Han Li! That battle against that old witch was really taxing on me!" Jin Tong pouted as she tugged on Han Li's sleeve.
"We should indeed be leaving this place. Also, if you encounter an enemy that you can't defeat in the future, then run away. Don't bite off more than you can chew," Han Li cautioned with a serious expression.
"You're so ungrateful! I did all that to save you!" Jin Tong grumbled in a disgruntled manner.
A faint smile appeared on Han Li's face as a burst of azure light appeared over his body, and he was just about to depart when he swept his gaze over his surroundings with slightly furrowed brows.
In the wake of the battle that had just taken place, the entire area aside from the golden palace had been razed to the ground, so everything was laid bare to Han Li, yet Lu Yuqing was nowhere to be seen.
"Jin Tong, did you notice where the woman who was with me went during my battle against Qu Ling?" Han Li asked.
"What woman? Oh right, that woman... She was observing the battle from afar initially, then suddenly unleashed some type of secret technique to vanish into the ground," Jin Tong replied.
"You're saying she ran away?" Han Li asked as his brows furrowed slightly.
"She did. She was with you, so I didn't try to stop her. Otherwise, I could've done so with ease," Jin Tong replied with a wide smile.
Han Li paid no heed to Jin Tong's boastful statement as he stood on the spot in silence, and it was unclear what he was thinking.
Jin Tong pouted slightly with displeasure upon seeing this, and she turned her head away, refusing to look at him any longer, but it didn't take long before she began sneaking glances at him again out of the corner of her eye.
Right at this moment, Han Li rose up into the sky, and blue light flashed in his eyes as he scoured his gaze over the surrounding area.
Moments later, the blue light in his eyes faded, but his brows became even more tightly furrowed.
He had just searched through the entire nearby area, but wasn't able to detect the auras of any other cultivators, nor was there any residual aura left behind by Lu Yuqing.
"Are we going or not? I'm starving!" Jin Tong complained as she planted her hands on her hips.
"I'm looking for her because she has an incomplete map of the immortal manor. I was only able to make it to this place thanks to her map," Han Li explained.
What he didn't mention was that he felt like there was something rather strange about Lu Yuqing. In particular, her demeanor and behavior had become increasingly more peculiar after they left the Light Frost Palace, and it was very abnormal that she had suddenly disappeared without leaving any trace behind.
"If we don't have a map, then we'll just have to look on our own. What's the big deal?" Jin Tong retorted with a nonchalant pout.
"You're right, let's go," Han Li replied with a nod, then flew away into the distance as a streak of azure light, while Jin Tong followed along as a streak of golden light.
The two of them flew for close to an hour before stopping near a semi-collapsed palace.
"Let's rest here for a bit," Han Li said as he took a seat in a side hall that was still relatively intact, then swept a hand through the air to release several dozen streaks of blue light to set up a blue array.
Jin Tong sat down beside Han Li, and the latter exhaled before closing his eyes and channeling his cultivation arts to digest the pill that he had taken earlier.
A layer of gentle azure light appeared over his body, while Jin Tong took a glance at him before also closing her eyes to cultivate.
Close to a day passed by before the azure light over Han Li's body faded, and at this point, he had already completely replenished his immortal spiritual power reserves.
Meanwhile, Jin Tong was still enveloped in a layer of golden light, and the spiritual qi around her was constantly streaming into her mouth.
Han Li took a glance at Jin Tong, then withdrew his gaze before sweeping a sleeve through the air, and two objects appeared before him, namely the gray throne and the azure bowl that contained Qu Ling's remains.
Han Li took a glance at the gray throne, then cast an incantation seal into it, and a layer of gray light instantly emerged over the throne, but it wasn't all that bright.
As he continued to cast more incantation seals into the throne, the gray light that it was emanating gradually became brighter, and the three mirror projections slowly emerged, giving off gray, black, and white light, respectively.
Han Li's eyes lit up slightly upon seeing this. This gray throne was quite a formidable treasure that was superior to all of the immortal treasures in his possession.
What was even more remarkable was that it contained three completely different types of law power, and that was something that he had never seen before.
It was clearly an extremely powerful treasure, but unfortunately, it was Qu Ling's bonded treasure, and it contained an extremely deep-rooted bonded mark that was impossible to remove.
Even if Han Li could forcibly refine the treasure, he would only be able to unleash 50% to 60% of its power at most.
With that in mind, Han Li heaved a faint sigh before stowing the gray throne away, then turned his attention to the azure bowl.
He made a grabbing motion with one hand, and several streaks of light flew out of the bowl before landing in front of him, revealing themselves to be four small pouches of different colors, a white jade belt with hundreds of gemstones of different colors embedded into it, and a black ring.
All of these items had been carried by Qu Ling, and Han Li hadn't had a chance to examine them yet.
First, Han Li picked up the four little pouches, and after a brief examination, his eyes instantly lit up slightly.
As opposed to storage pouches, these were spirit beast pouches, and they were all quite remarkable. Each of them had massive internal space, and they were essentially miniature secret areas.
Furthermore, each space was filled with extremely abundant spiritual qi and had differing climates and environments.
Refining a spirit beast pouch like this was definitely going to cost no less than what it took to refine a powerful Acquired Immortal Treasure.
However, the four pouches were all completely empty, and Han Li presumed that they had been used to house the Golden Immortal Stage spirit beasts that he had already slain.
A hint of elation flashed through his eyes as he stowed the four pouches away.
Even though he still had no use for them for the time being, they were priceless treasures, and at the very least, he should be able to sell them to cultivators or sects that specialized in nurturing spirit beasts for a large quantity of Immortal Origin Stones.
After that, he picked up the white jade belt, and his eyes immediately lit up once again.
The belt was also an object used to store spirit beasts, and every single gem on the belt was an independent space, containing all types of different spirit beasts.
Some spaces only housed a single spirit beast each, while some housed thousands, even tens of thousands.
However, none of these spirit beasts were all that powerful, and True Immortal Stage ones among them were extremely rare, while most of them were below the Grand Ascension Stage.
Aside from that, each space contained a stone plaque that denoted the special characteristics and uses of the spirit beasts being kept inside. As it turned out, not all of them were meant for battle. Instead, there were also some who specialized in exploration and tracking.
At this point, Han Li had accumulated a vast wealth of experience, but even so, his horizons were significantly broadened as he browsed through this vast catalog of spirit beasts.
However, much to Han Li's surprise and dismay, all of the spirit beasts within the jade belt were dead, and there wasn't even a single one alive.
Furthermore, none of the spirit beasts had any visible injuries, and that made their deaths even more bewildering.
After a brief moment of contemplation, Han Li summoned an azure deer carcass from the jade belt.
The spirit beast had blood flowing out of all of its orifices, and Han Li extended a finger forward to send a speck of azure light vanishing into the deer's head.
Moments later, his brows furrowed slightly, and he summoned another carcass, this time of a white ice silkworm, before repeating the process.
A furious look flashed through his eyes as he determined that all of the spirit beasts had perished due to a type of restriction.
Qu Ling had planted an extremely inhumane restriction in all of their bodies, one that would lead to the deaths of all of these spirit beasts should she ever meet her demise.
Han Li shook his head with a forlorn expression before stowing the jade belt away as well.
This jade belt was most likely even more valuable than the four high-grade spirit beast pouches.
Finally, he picked up the black ring before pressing it against his own forehead, and as soon as he injected his spiritual sense into the ring, an astonished look instantly appeared on his face.
With a sweep of his sleeve, a huge pile of items appeared on the ground, almost filling half of the entire hall.
These items were very diverse, containing everything from spirit plants and materials to ore and treasures, and they were radiating lights of all types of different colors to illuminate the entire hall.
Furthermore, almost every single one of these items contained extremely potent spiritual power.
Han Li had found many treasures after entering the immortal manor, but none of them could even begin to compare with Qu Ling's astonishing collection.
However, some of these items clearly belonged to other cultivators, indicating that she had claimed the lives and treasures of many past victims.
All of a sudden, a thought occurred to Han Li, and he flipped a hand over to produce a crimson badge, one that belonged to the True Flame Sect.
There were as many as six or seven identical badges in Qu Ling's collection, telling him that all of the True Flame Sect's cultivators had already been slain by her.
Han Li couldn't help but shake his head and heave another forlorn sigh. He wasn't exactly fond of the True Flame Sect's cultivators, but it was still rather saddening to see these temporary allies meeting their demise.
Han Li casually cast the True Flame Sect badges aside, then continued to examine Qu Ling's collection.
A short while later, his eyes lit up as he made a grabbing motion to draw a nearby green gourd into his grasp.
This was none other than the Profound Heavenly Gourd that Qu Ling had used earlier.
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