That day, Han Li spent more than ten days and finally, without mishap, assisted Yue Long, this Flying Spirit Race powerhouse at the Grand Ascension stage, in refining the Gold and Wood extreme elemental crystals.
Yue Long was overjoyed and showed not the slightest regret over the promised compensation. He generously gave Han Li one piece each of the newly refined extreme elemental crystals and strongly urged him to stay at his cave abode for a while longer.
Han Li naturally declined and pressed on with his journey, bringing the others to a point in the Deepwater Abyss where the spatial barriers were at their weakest. He deployed the Profound Heaven Spirit-Severing Sword to cleave the barrier open and piloted the entire Demonic Spirit Sacred Vessel through the gap.
Now, upon hearing Han Li's words, Blood Spirit smiled sweetly and replied: "This space truly is remarkable. It seems Senior's close friend must be a formidable existence as well — could she also be a Grand Ascension cultivator?"
"Fellow Daoist has guessed wrong this time. Although my friend's cultivation isn't weak either, the last time we parted, she was only at the Void Refining stage. She certainly hasn't reached Grand Ascension by now. The Integration stage, however, is quite possible. After all, she has taken up residence under a Grand Ascension master's tutelage," Han Li replied calmly.
"Under a Grand Ascension master's tutelage, at the Integration stage! How enviable. Back then, I suffered untold hardships just to advance to Integration and push even a step further. Even now, my true body remains sealed away on another continent." Upon hearing this, Blood Spirit's expression turned somewhat peculiar, and she sighed.
"Heh heh, why be so hard on yourself, Fairy? Your fortune was simply lacking back then. Once you rescue your true body, advancing further isn't at all impossible," Han Li said with a chuckle.
"I hope that truly can be the case." Blood Spirit gave a bitter smile.
Han Li smiled faintly and said nothing more. Instead, he flipped his hand over, and a pale black jade slip appeared in his palm, which he pressed gently against his forehead.
It was the map of the Deepwater Abyss that he had obtained from Qing Yuanzi all those years ago.
His spiritual sense swept through the jade slip several times in rapid succession, then scanned the terrain around the marsh. After a moment, he pinpointed his location — he wasn't actually that far from Qing Yuanzi's cave abode.
Overjoyed!
He put the jade slip away and immediately urged the massive black vessel forward, which rumbled as it shot off in a particular direction at tremendous speed.
A day later, as the black vessel approached the region where Qing Yuanzi's cave abode was located, Han Li — who had been sitting cross-legged at the bow — suddenly opened his eyes with a start, a look of surprise crossing his face.
"Such powerful fluctuations... these are tribulation lightning fluctuations. Could someone nearby be undergoing their Heavenly Tribulation? By my calculations, this should be around the time Qing Yuanzi would face his tribulation — could it really be him..."
He murmured a few words under his breath, his expression shifting between light and dark. He formed a hand seal, and beneath him the massive black vessel hummed, trembling once before coming to a halt in midair.
In the next instant, he rose to his feet, stamped one foot down, and a streak of light enveloped his body. He transformed into a long rainbow of green light and shot off through the sky.
Only then did a clear, resonant voice carry down from above the vessel: "Stay here and watch over the spirit vessel. I'm going ahead to investigate first."
His voice was still echoing through the sky when the green rainbow flickered several times and vanished beyond the horizon.
Only then did Zhu Guo'er, Blood Spirit, and the others hurry out of the cabin and gaze in alarm toward the direction Han Li had gone.
With Han Li's powers, when he drove his escape light to its fullest, his speed was naturally inconceivable. However, the location of the fluctuations he had sensed was quite far from his position. It took him the time it takes to drink a full cup of tea before he finally caught sight of dark tribulation clouds gathering on the distant horizon, along with the faint rumble of thunder.
"That's not right — there are other Grand Ascension cultivators present."
After flying a moment longer, Han Li narrowed his eyes within the green light, a chill settling in his heart.
The green rainbow circled once, the light dimmed, and his figure materialized in midair. He gazed thoughtfully toward the area beneath the distant tribulation clouds.
"One, two, three — there are this many Grand Ascension cultivators gathered there. The way they aren't bothering to conceal their auras at all, they clearly harbor ill intentions toward whoever is undergoing tribulation. The only question is whether that person is Qing Yuanzi. If it's not, there's no need to wade into those waters." After watching for a while, Han Li murmured a few words, a strange look flickering across his face.
He lowered his head in thought for a moment, then suddenly slapped the back of his own head and spat out a mouthful of misty green vital energy.
The misty energy swirled in front of him, then condensed and transformed into a green crystalline sphere.
Han Li formed a hand seal with one hand, closed both eyes — but between his brows, a crimson mark suddenly appeared, and a cloud of black qi coalesced out of nothingness. It solidified into a pitch-black vertical eye.
A flash of black light!
A hair-thin black thread shot from the vertical eye and vanished into the void ahead in the blink of an eye.
In the next moment, radiant light rolled across the surface of the green crystal sphere, and an exceptionally clear image slowly materialized.
Han Li, who had kept his eyes tightly shut, reopened them and gazed intently at the image displayed on the sphere.