During the final stretch of the Guanghan Realm's opening, Han Li did not cultivate or attempt to break through any bottlenecks. Instead, he sought out a desolate mountain and used the newly learned Golden Seal Script to study the secrets of the Soul Refinement Technique.
In the earlier ruins' restrictions, when his body had been flooded with that mysterious energy, he had still failed to break through to the Body Integration stage. Using ordinary methods naturally made breaking through the bottleneck even more unlikely.
After all, he had advanced two stages in succession. Regardless of how refined his magical power was or how settled his state of mind, both would need to go through an extended period of tempering before he could truly have the opportunity to break through to Body Integration.
As for the other alien cultivators who had entered this realm, every last one of them had lingered at the peak of Void Refinement for hundreds or even thousands of years, convinced that they could no longer achieve a breakthrough in the Spirit Realm. That was why they had ventured into the Guanghan Realm.
According to rumors, during the period when the Guanghan Realm remained open, the closer it got to the final one or two months, the denser the spiritual energy from the realm's spiritual veins became. The chances of breaking through a bottleneck during this time would increase, if only slightly.
Therefore, most alien cultivators who entered this realm would either spend the first year in secluded cultivation, making final preparations for a breakthrough, or use that time to frantically scour the Guanghan Realm for various rare materials unavailable in the outside world.
There was, of course, a third type—people like Fairy Yue who entered this realm with entirely different purposes.
But regardless of which type, everyone would begin assaulting the Body Integration bottleneck during the final one or two months.
Someone like Han Li, who had originally lacked late-stage Void Refinement cultivation yet advanced two consecutive stages within the Guanghan Realm to reach the late stage—that was truly without precedent and would likely never be replicated. A special case entirely!
However, the Golden Seal Script was indeed extraordinarily profound. Even after spending about a month on it, Han Li had only just managed to comprehend a small portion of the content and grasp the simplest parts.
Much of this portion contained praise and exposition of the Soul Refinement Technique.
But even this was enough for Han Li to understand why Fairy Yue had smiled bitterly when discussing this technique that day, lamenting how difficult it was to cultivate.
According to the Golden Seal Script, the Soul Refinement Technique was apparently an extraordinary divine ability even in the True Immortal Realm—one that even incorporated certain natural laws into its incantations. Once cultivated successfully, one's spiritual sense would immediately increase by an inconceivable degree.
The technique was divided into three layers in total.
Completing the first layer would double one's spiritual sense. The second layer would quadruple it. The third layer would increase it by more than eightfold.
Such terrifying amplification thoroughly alarmed even Han Li, and he now believed more than half the claims—that this Soul Refinement Technique was indeed an extraordinary art even in the True Immortal Realm.
But despite the technique's incredible power, just as Fairy Yue had previously stated, its cultivation restrictions were extraordinarily harsh.
The conditions were not many—at the Deity Transformation stage or above, one could attempt to cultivate it. However, its sole prerequisite was that both one's physical body and spiritual sense must be sufficiently powerful to withstand the technique's violent backlash.
After all, the consequences of one's spiritual sense suddenly multiplying several times over were simple: if either the cultivator's physical body or spiritual sense failed to meet the requirements, they would immediately die from bodily explosion.
According to the technique's description, to begin cultivating even the first layer, one's spiritual sense itself needed to be more than twice as powerful as that of an ordinary cultivator at the same level. The physical body requirements were even more stringent—even an extreme body cultivator of the same rank would barely meet the standards.
If only one of the two conditions needed to be met, though those who qualified would be vanishingly few, some could still be found.
Both conditions being simultaneously met—one could not say such people didn't exist in the Spirit Realm, but they were absolutely exceedingly rare.
After all, for ordinary cultivators, their spiritual sense was invariably far weaker than their physical bodies. As for extreme body temperers who lacked magical power support, their spiritual sense could not possibly be particularly strong either.
As for the cultivation requirements for the second and third layers regarding both aspects, they were even more heaven-defying.
Fairy Yue was the type who specialized in magical power cultivation. Upon first seeing these conditions, she had naturally been greatly disappointed.
But just as she had originally guessed, at the very end of the scripture, a solution to this predicament was indeed provided—two pill recipes, formulas for pills that had never been heard of before.
One was called the "Migan Pill," and the other the "Soul Condensing Pill."
According to the descriptions, one of these two pills could enhance spiritual sense, while the other could improve the physical body. After taking both pills together over an extended period, a cultivator could gradually meet the requirements for cultivating the Soul Refinement Technique.
Spiritual pills with such incredible efficacy were naturally not products of the Spirit Realm.
Even though both pill recipes were described in meticulous detail—even going so far as to outline some of the refining steps—not a single primary ingredient was one that Han Li had ever heard of. Attempting to refine these two pills within the Spirit Realm was an absolute fantasy.
After reading the Soul Refinement Technique's cultivation requirements, Han Li was both alarmed and somewhat relieved.
He walked the path of dual cultivation of body and magical power. His spiritual sense, owing to the Great Development Art he had previously cultivated, far exceeded that of others at the same level. And the Brazen Saint True Devil Art, combined with various body-tempering medicines he had consumed, had pushed his physical body to an inconceivable level of strength.
Therefore, the first layer went without saying—he could cultivate it from his current stage.
As for the second layer, once he completed the first layer of the Soul Refinement Technique, his amplified spiritual sense should just barely meet the requirements. As for his physical body, unless he cultivated the Brazen Saint True Devil Art to its absolute limit and had some fortunate encounters, reaching that standard was not entirely without hope.
As for the third layer's requirements, all Han Li could do was stroke his chin with a bitter smile across his face.
Regardless, the fact that the Soul Refinement Technique could multiply one's spiritual sense several times over made its utility beyond imagination.
Setting everything else aside, after completing just the first layer, Han Li estimated that his chances of breaking through to the Body Integration stage would increase by at least twenty percent.