The moment he was far enough away from Yuan Yao, Han Li could barely contain his excitement. He pulled out the Void Heaven Cauldron and, while flying through the air, could hardly wait to see the treasures inside.
But before long, Han Li felt like coughing up blood.
No matter what methods he tried, the cauldron lid seemed fused to the body as though it had been cast as a single piece. He couldn't pry open even the tiniest crack.
Whether he poured spiritual energy into the cauldron in torrents, or furiously blasted the walls with various magical treasures in his frustration, the lid would at most flicker with a few flashes of blue light, then remain utterly immovable.
Han Li's heart sank in an instant.
Now, apart from being able to enlarge or shrink the Void Heaven Cauldron, he had absolutely no way to do anything with it.
Upon realizing this, Han Li cursed aloud over the empty sea for the better part of half a day, his target naturally being the supposedly nonexistent Master of the Void Heaven Hall.
Clearly, there was something strange about this cauldron. Either it could only be activated by a Nascent Soul stage cultivator, or there was some special trick needed to open it — it wasn't as simple as just pouring in spiritual energy.
Could it have something to do with the Qianlan Ice Flame that had originally enveloped the cauldron?
Completely baffled, Han Li could only make wild guesses.
But thinking about it a bit, this was only natural.
The Void Heaven Cauldron was hailed as the number one secret treasure of the Scattered Star Seas, so having some mysterious quirks was to be expected. Nothing to get worked up over.
Still, sitting on a treasure he couldn't use was incredibly frustrating.
In a huff, he tossed the cauldron back into his storage pouch, deciding he would study it properly when he had more time later.
Next, Han Li took out the wolf-head jade ruyi and began exploring its uses.
Surprisingly, within a short time he had actually figured out two of its abilities.
The simplest was to directly inject spiritual energy into the ruyi, which would conjure a two-colored shield of yellow and red around his body.
He had personally witnessed the defensive power of this shield inside the Void Heaven Hall. It had blocked a strike from the enormous hand formed by the Recluse Qingyi without sustaining any damage — so its potency went without saying.
The other ability required Han Li to silently recite several lines of ancient incantations inscribed on one side of the ruyi, then extend his spiritual sense into the wolf heads at both ends. Depending on the situation, he could summon either a small red wolf and a small yellow wolf separately, or else call forth a single massive silver wolf all at once.
The small red wolf seemed to be formed from extremely pure fire-attribute spiritual energy and innately knew several powerful fire spirit techniques.
The yellow wolf was earth-attribute, skilled in earth spirit techniques. Among them was actually the Earth Escape Technique — one Han Li had always wanted to learn but could never quite grasp.
This was a welcome surprise.
As for the silver giant wolf, Han Li found it rather headache-inducing. He simply couldn't control the beast.
No matter what commands he gave, the silver wolf would respond, but always in a lazy, halfhearted manner.
When Han Li wanted to see what techniques the wolf knew, the silver wolf would play dumb and ignore him entirely.
When Han Li caught the unmistakably human-like look of perfunctory dismissal in the silver wolf's eyes, he was completely speechless.
He could tell that both the yellow wolf and the red wolf were merely avatars of the silver wolf. Clearly, the silver wolf was the true spirit artifact spirit of this jade ruyi.
As for why the silver wolf was so unruly and defiant, it was probably because it hadn't been fully refined. Han Li could only surmise as much.
But he remembered all too well the surprised expression on the old demon Xuangu's face when he had seen the silver wolf — to the point where he hadn't hesitated to launch even the Gold Lightning Bamboo small arrows.
This silver wolf spirit artifact was definitely something special; of that there was no doubt.
So Han Li didn't let it bother him. He set the jade ruyi aside for the time being and turned to sorting through the other treasures he had obtained from the Void Heaven Hall.
He re-examined the rings given by the old demons, the Spirit Rhino Pendant, the Ice Pearl, and other items. He found nothing wrong with any of them, but he still didn't dare carry them on his person, stowing them all in his storage pouch.
The only exception was the Barbarian Beard's "Imperial Scale Armor." Han Li simply couldn't bear to part with its extraordinary defensive power, and after some thought, continued wearing it against his skin.
As for the "puppet component fragment," the half vial of "ten-thousand-year spirit milk," and the small section of "Soul-Nourishing Wood" root no longer than half a finger, Han Li handled those carefully as well.
During this process, Han Li happened to come across some small multicolored round beads. This gave him a momentary pause before he recalled where they had come from.