Delight bloomed in
A sharp whine rang out, and countless golden threads materialized from thin air. They spiraled around his fist for a moment before flickering away into nothing.
At the same time, a continuous rumble like rolling thunder and firecrackers echoed within Han Li's body, and a surge of titanic force far greater than before gushed forth from every Meridian.
A faint flash of blue light flickered through Han Li's eyes. The sound within his body stopped abruptly, and with a casual swing of his fist, he struck out toward the distant stone gate through empty air.
A sharp boom erupted from the air. Five-colored spiritual light flashed across the surface of the stone gate before it exploded outward with a thunderous blast.
Han Li nodded with satisfaction, flicking his sleeve toward the shattered remnants. A sheet of azure light swept out.
After a flash of spiritual light, the rubble reassembled itself, fusing seamlessly back into the form of the stone gate.
For the time that followed, Han Li settled into a cross-legged position and carefully examined every part of his body, sensing the profound and subtle changes in each region. A faint smile surfaced on his face.
Given the current strength of his physical body, cultivating the second layer of the Divine Essence Art should pose absolutely no problem. And as for the Azure Phoenix True Blood he had obtained from the Demon Realm, he would refine that along with it.
Three days and three nights passed.
Han Li had thoroughly mastered all the subtleties of the Hundred Meridian Treasure Refinement Art. He immediately consumed a vial of the Azure Phoenix True Blood and began comprehending the second layer of the Divine Essence Art.
The second layer had already been fully comprehended during the preceding centuries. Now that his physical body and spiritual sense had both met the cultivation requirements, the actual process was not particularly slow.
In just a little over ten years, Han Li successfully completed the second layer of the Divine Essence Art.
What surprised him this time, however, was that when the second layer reached completion, it did not trigger the same spectacular celestial phenomenon that had accompanied the first layer. Instead, the breakthrough occurred in utter silence.
Once the second layer was fully realized, the amplification of his spiritual sense was so tremendous that even Han Li himself was alarmed. With a mere extension of his perception, everything within seventy to eighty thousand li could be swept and detected in a single pass — something that even ordinary Mahayana cultivators could never hope to achieve.
During this period, the Azure Phoenix True Blood had long since been completely refined, adding yet another avian transformation to his Awakening Transformation Art.
After trying out the Azure Phoenix transformation several times within his secret chamber, Han Li restored his human form with satisfaction. With a flick of his wrist, he produced two pieces of emerald crystal of different sizes from his storage bracelet.
One was roughly a foot in diameter; the other was no larger than a fist. Both radiated a hazy green luminescence.
These were the crystal cores containing the Grand Five Elements True Light of Yin and Yang.
One had been obtained from the underground mining vein, and the other had been refined directly from the demon core of that Magnetic Radiance Beast from before.
Combined with a number of other rare materials he had already prepared, these two pieces should be just barely sufficient for him to refine the third Extreme Mountain.
Gazing at the crystal cores in his hands, Han Li silently recalled the relevant refining methods from the Yuan Harmonization Five Extreme Mountains within the sea of his consciousness.
A full hour later, his gaze sharpened, and he suddenly tossed both emerald crystals into the air. A clear chime rang from his wrist as his storage bracelet trembled and detached itself, floating upward on its own.
He pointed one finger at it in an unhurried manner.
The storage bracelet spun around, and a vast expanse of brilliant light immediately cascaded from within, sweeping across the floor.
In the next instant, jade boxes, vials, and jars began appearing all over the ground in a frenzy, arranged neatly and piled up around Han Li.
Once all the items had materialized, a muffled sound came from the storage bracelet once more. A streak of silver light shot out and resolved into a silver-white cauldron.
At first it was barely an inch tall, but with the wind it swelled rapidly, transforming into a massive object several zhang high before slamming heavily downward.
With a tremendous crash, the entire chamber shook slightly as the silver-white giant cauldron settled firmly on the ground, its three legs driven half a foot deep into the floor hard as refined steel.
Han Li beckoned toward the two emerald crystals in the air, and both instantly transformed into twin orbs of green light that plunged into the cauldron.
*Whoosh!*
Han Li opened his mouth again and spat out a sphere of silver fire. After a quick spiral, it took the shape of a silver firebird roughly a foot across. Spreading its wings, it dove straight to the base of the cauldron.
The silver spiritual flame roared to life around the cauldron, and the surrounding temperature spiked violently, rendering the nearby void hazy and indistinct, as though the very air could be melted through.
Han Li's ten fingers moved like the spokes of a turning wheel, tapping rapidly at the boxes and vials.
The lids flew open in response, each item flickering into existence above the cauldron before swiftly inverting and pouring their contents inside.
On the other side, as Han Li drove his Magical Power to its limits, the silver firebird circling below the cauldron swelled to more than double its original size, its flames surging upward to engulf nearly the entire lower half of the silver cauldron.
Across the surface of the silver giant cauldron, five-colored spiritual light flickered as vivid, bean-sized runes materialized and danced in the air around it.
For a moment, the cauldron seemed shrouded in unfathomable mystery.