Han Li gave his sleeve a flick, and a second small blue cauldron shot out. With the same low hum, it swelled in size, then drifted upward under the guidance of his spiritual sense, rising a full twenty-odd zhang into the air above the massive spell formation before spinning in place and hovering motionless.
With a flash of silver light, a humanoid puppet appeared atop the cauldron, standing perfectly still at one corner, steady as a mountain.
Han Li gave a slight nod, then abruptly slapped one of the spirit beast pouches at his waist. A gust of white, freezing wind swept out from the pouch, and twelve four-winged centipedes, each several feet long, materialized in the air.
They were the twelve Six-Winged Frost Centipedes.
The moment the centipedes appeared, they began swaying their heads and tails, spewing mouthfuls of freezing mist. Billowing white fog spread through the high air, immediately concealing the centipedes' forms. The cold mist then swirled and dispersed, settling into every corner of the light cage.
Once everything was in place, Han Li finally allowed his expression to relax slightly.
But he still did not dare let his guard down. He inspected the spell formation once more from start to finish, and only after confirming that nothing was amiss did he take up his position at a specific point within the formation, form a hand seal, and allow a layer of purple flame to erupt around his body. His figure sank slowly into the ground as though it were a phantom, vanishing without a trace in the blink of an eye.
Inside the massive light cage, only the motionless humanoid puppet standing atop the cauldron and the gentle wisps of white fog drifting about remained.
Some dozens of zhang underground, Han Li found himself immersed in a sea of blazing crimson molten rock.
The extreme heat — enough to reduce any ordinary person to ash — posed absolutely no problem to him under the protection of the Purple Extreme Fire. However, the clashing forces of extreme cold and heat sent continuous, muffled booms rolling through his surroundings like thunder, growing faintly irksome after a while.
This was not because Han Li had not considered switching to the Fire Dragon Pillar barrier. Rather, the situation called for a different approach. While a fire-attribute shield could easily blend with the surrounding magma, maintaining the temperature inside the barrier under such scorching conditions would consume far more Magical Power than the cold-attribute light shield. Before he had actually located the Solar Essence Fire, Han Li had no intention of doing so.
Yet within the magma, even with his spiritual sense extended to its absolute limit, the area he could sense was far smaller than on the surface — a hundred-odd zhang at most.
When Han Li realized this, he could not help but sigh.
No wonder Patriarch Cold Phoenix, despite knowing that the Solar Essence Fire was right here, had never managed to seize it across all those years and had ultimately given up the attempt altogether.
In this environment, even a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator attempting to capture a highly spirited Solar Essence Fire was rather impractical. Perhaps only a Deity Transformation cultivator could have had even a sliver of hope.
Even after all the preparations Han Li had made, he still had no certainty that he would succeed.
Han Li gave a sharp slap to the Yin Yang Firebird that had been perched silently on his shoulder. The firebird spread its wings and flew out of the purple barrier, plunging headfirst into the molten rock and vanishing without a trace.
The entire process was utterly silent, as though the firebird were entirely unconcerned by the magma's blistering heat, encountering no resistance whatsoever.
Han Li stared at this for a moment in speechless astonishment, then felt a secret thrill.
The True Yin Fire was the most profoundly yin substance in the entire Human Realm, yet it seemed perfectly untroubled even within molten rock. It was no wonder this fire was hailed as one of the Three Great Spirit Fires — it certainly harbored mysteries he had yet to understand. Given the chance, he would have to study it thoroughly.
Be that as it may, the True Yin Fire and the Solar Essence Fire were born of opposing natures — one from extreme heat, the other of innate extreme cold. Under the mutual attraction of yin and yang, as long as the Solar Essence Fire was anywhere nearby, it would be drawn to the True Yin Fire on its own.
Now it was simply a matter of luring it up to the surface.
With these thoughts running through his mind, Han Li followed the firebird's spiritual link from a distance and began roaming in every direction around the volcanic crater.
One day, two days, several days passed. By the end, Han Li had searched nearly every inch of the underground expanse within a ten-thousand-li radius, paying particular attention to the several spots where Patriarch Cold Phoenix had previously detected traces of the Essence Fire, leaving not a single stone unturned.
Yet to his great disappointment, there was still no sign whatsoever of the Solar Essence Fire.
Han Li grew troubled. With no other choice, he began expanding his search range further, but the Solar Essence Fire seemed never to have existed at all — utterly vanished without a trace.
A month later, while searching a location several tens of thousands of li from the volcanic crater, Han Li's face remained expressionless, but inwardly his anxiety was mounting.
Anyone who spent day after day shuttling through molten rock, with nothing but crimson in every direction and spiritual sense straining at full power to sweep over every nearby detail — the drain on one's energy and Magical Power was enough to test the limits of endurance.
Just as Han Li was contemplating whether he should return to the surface to recover his spiritual energy, his expression suddenly changed. His eyes snapped wide open, radiating bright light, and a look of delighted surprise appeared on his face.
Without a second word, he slapped the storage pouch at his hip. The small black bottle containing the Five Devils of Unified Heart flew out at once, tumbling once through the magma before releasing the five devils.
The five devils were clearly somewhat uncomfortable within the molten rock, but shrouded in grayish-white devilish energy, they did not truly fear the extreme heat.
Muttering an incantation, Han Li watched as the five devils rolled and transformed into ghostly heads, then shot off in different directions, plunging deep into the magma and disappearing from sight.