The massive azure vessel plunged into the sea without the slightest hesitation, continuing its rapid forward flight.
At the same time, the Spirit Race and human cultivators aboard the vessel had each retreated to their rooms, silently meditating and regulating their breath, conserving their energy in preparation for the infiltration of the Demon World.
Everyone understood all too well that despite the lengthy preparations they had made, the dangers awaiting them on this journey were among the most perilous they had ever faced in their lives.
The slightest misstep could result in the annihilation of their entire force within the Demon World — and that would be far from unusual.
Thus, without exception, everyone was unnervingly quiet, each making their final preparations before entering the Demon World.
In a room on the lowest level of the massive vessel, multicolored restrictive light flickered across the surrounding walls. Within sat three "Han Lis" with identical faces, cross-legged in a row.
One radiated brilliant golden light across his entire body, another shimmered with green luminescence, and the third swirled with faint tendrils of black qi.
These were none other than Han Li's true body, his Spirit Avatar, and the Vairochana Golden Body controlled by his second demon Nascent Soul.
Originally, Qu'er's Spirit Avatar and the second demon Nascent Soul had been temporarily separated from Han Li's side when he was pursued and hunted by Blood Light's three great avatars — forced to serve as decoys.
As it turned out, one had relied on the Spirit Avatar's innate divine abilities to escape pursuit, while the other had resorted to a secret technique to detonate its Nascent Soul, allowing a wisp of demon soul to slip away by the narrowest of margins.
When Han Li returned to Heavenly Abyss City, he had naturally used secret techniques long ago to recall both of them.
Unfortunately, with the demon army besieging the city, neither the Spirit Avatar nor the demon Nascent Soul dared return rashly, and could only conceal themselves in hiding beyond the outer perimeter of the demon forces.
It was not until the demon army had been driven from Heavenly Abyss City that the two quietly slipped into the secret chamber and reunited with his true body while Han Li was recovering from his injuries in seclusion.
Since the demon Nascent Soul was intimately familiar with both the city and the restrictions of the stone tower, the reunion went unnoticed by anyone else.
As for the Spirit Avatar and Qu'er, their time away from Han Li's side had not only caused no harm but had even led to a slight increase in their cultivation.
The second demon Nascent Soul, however, had detonated its Nascent Soul once. Although that remnant wisp of soul had recondensed into a new Nascent Soul body, the vital essence had been damaged by more than half.
For an ordinary Deity Transformation cultivator, such a situation would be an exceedingly troublesome matter — without decades or even a century of bitter cultivation, it would be extremely difficult to fully restore the second Nascent Soul to its former state.
But for Han Li, who possessed countless spirit medicines and elixirs, this was hardly a concern at all.
After deploying a large quantity of essence-nourishing and body-condensing pills, the second demon Nascent Soul had recovered roughly seventy to eighty percent of its lost vital essence in merely half a year.
Now, although this second demon Nascent Soul was still far from its peak condition, it was no longer a hindrance — it could once again control the Golden Body in battle.
However, Han Li paid no attention whatsoever to the two avatar-like existences at his side. Instead, he focused his entire mind on a small purple cauldron hovering before him.
The cauldron was merely several inches in size, its design ancient and peculiar, inscribed with dense, abstruse runes — but at this moment it was enveloped in wisps of azure flame exhaled from Han Li's mouth.
Han Li stared at the cauldron without blinking, his ten fingers flicking in rapid succession as he sent streak after streak of spell seals into the azure flame. His expression was one of profound solemnity.
Within the flickering azure flames, a faint, low hum emanated from within the cauldron, and a hazy gray-white ribbon of light — its lower half disappearing beneath the cauldron's lid while its upper half flickered unsteadily above — could be vaguely seen.
The ribbon of light was no thicker than a finger, yet within the embrace of the azure flame it thrashed wildly with surprising vitality, clearly terrified of the flames.
Han Li's expression did not change in the slightest, but the spell seals launched from his fingers grew ever more rapid, and the azure true flame spewing from his mouth shifted in hue, threads of golden light now faintly visible within it.
With a soft "pfft," the gray-white ribbon of light could apparently endure the refining of the azure flame no longer. It shot out from the cauldron with a flick, then condensed into a sphere of white light that burst through the ring of azure flame, attempting to flee into the void.
But Han Li had clearly anticipated this. Unhurriedly, he flicked a single finger.
A crack of thunder rang out as a golden arc of lightning sprang forth.
The white sphere let out a pitiful whimper and instantly dissipated into nothingness beneath the flashing golden lightning.
"A great success! It was well worth the considerable time I spent — I've finally managed to drive out that old demon's remnant consciousness from the cauldron. Now I need only refine it with my vital blood, and I'll be able to wield this treasure at will." Han Li's tense expression relaxed, and he murmured to himself with undisguised delight.
He then formed a series of hand seals, opened his mouth, and expelled a mass of bright crimson vital blood that, with a soft "bang," dissolved into a mist of blood before seeping into the small cauldron.
His hand seals shifted, and the azure flame surged to twice its previous height, rolling and swirling around the entire cauldron in ceaseless rotation.
This cauldron was none other than the "Purple Flame Cauldron" that Han Li had snatched from one of Blood Light's Saint Lord avatars.
When it had been in Blood Light's avatar's hands, this treasure had displayed wondrous and unpredictable abilities — even Han Li had found it deeply troublesome to deal with. It was a remnant of a Profound Heaven treasure.
The only reason he had not dared to immediately refine and use it upon obtaining it was that another old demon's remnant consciousness had been lurking within. He could only set it aside and use his true flame to slowly burn the remnant will away.
That wisp of demon consciousness possessed a sliver of spiritual awareness, and had not only hidden deep within the cauldron throughout, but had even drawn upon a portion of the treasure's power to resist stubbornly.
It had taken Han Li several years before he finally succeeded today in driving it out and destroying it with a single strike.
With this accomplished, so long as he anointed it with blood and completed the refinement, the Purple Flame Cauldron would become a devastating weapon in his arsenal.
In terms of the sheer unpredictability of a treasure's transformations, the Purple Flame Cauldron's power was clearly superior to that of the other Profound Heaven remnant blade that had been stolen — a case of a blessing in disguise, so to speak.
Han Li's refinement of the cauldron continued for seven days and seven nights before, on the eighth day, he finally swept his sleeve before him with a look of satisfaction on his face.