Since the Celestial Ice Flames would allow him to easily exterminate Nascent Soul cultivators, Han Li didn’t dare to be careless. He possessed several techniques for refining devilfire, but he ended up choosing one of the secret techniques contained in the Profound Yin Arts as he felt it to be the reliable.

Having decided, Han Li attentively stared at the golden ball of lightning for a moment and extended his finger towards it. With a crackle, a fine sliver of lightning suddenly arced from his finger and shot towards the golden ball. Suddenly, the golden ball trembled several times before being dragged into the air by the sliver of lightning. It brightly s.h.i.+ned as it floated.

Han Li then sat down underneath it and raised his head to look at it with narrowed eyes. At that point, he began to form a series of complicated incantation gestures with his hands.

With rolls of thunder, dense arcs of golden lightning began to flicker and form an impenetrable net of lightning surrounding the ball. Once the ball of lightning was surrounded by a large net of lightning, the scene grew still.

At that moment, Han Li sighed and his spiritual sense stirred, connecting with the sh.e.l.l of Divine Devilbane Lightning surrounding the Celestial Ice Flames. Thunderous bellows reverberated throughout the room and the golden sphere grew dazzling. Fine arcs of lightning began to repeatedly shoot out from the golden sphere and its bindings relaxed, revealing a deep blue, translucent pearl underneath. It was continuously spinning.

Han Li held his breath upon seeing the Celestial Ice Pearl. Having personally witnessed its power, fear of it still lingered in his heart.

With the ice pearl’s appearance, Han Li spat out an azure flying sword from his mouth without further thought and momentarily pressed his hands together. A dense bolt of lightning suddenly shot out from his hands, simultaneously striking the ice pearl in an overbearing attack alongside the flying sword.

The pearl cracked open with a boom. With a pulse of light, the sphere turned into a unstable sphere of blue flames. The sphere of flames then expanded before condensing into a fist-sized blue flower. Each of its petals glistened as the flower slowly blossomed.

Simultaneously, a layer of blue frost began to spread throughout the walls, enveloping the entire room in a realm of freezing ice in the blink of an eye.

However, Han Li had long prepared for this. Although a solemn expression appeared on his face, he remained calm and a dense layer of blue light securely protected his body. With his Nascent Soul cultivation, he was able to completely protect himself from the a.s.sault of the icy flames, fearsome as they may be.

Han Li felt somewhat relieved to see that the icy Qi was unable to penetrate the light barrier protecting his body and proceeded to point into the air. The net of Divine Devilbane Lightning immediately shrunk back and enveloped the blue flower of light. Underneath the golden sparkling light and blue radiance, the huge blue flower began to change once more into a flame attempting its utmost to resist the lightning net’s constriction.

Seeing that the Celestial Ice Flames were restricted, Han Li took a deep breath and began to move his spiritual sense. Claps of thunder rang out as a small hole opened from the golden net, only to be mended a moment later. But in that short instance, a sliver of blue flame escaped and shot towards Han Li as if it were intelligent.

Han Li expressionlessly clasped his hands in an incantation in response and he closed his eyes. azure Qi began to flow out from the crown of his head, followed by the emergence of an inch-tall Nascent Soul.

The Nascent Soul’s face was strained. As soon as it appeared, it stared at the incoming wisp of blue flame and it twisted its chubby arms, releasing two streaks of blinding azure light. At that same moment, it opened its mouth and spat out a fist-sized ball of light, resulting in three ma.s.ses of azure light to meet the wisp of blue flame.

The azure and blue flame clashed, but the blue flame was instantly enveloped by the azure light. Despite its struggle, the flame was truly too small and was easily overwhelmed. However, even as the flame wisp was trapped, it slowly dissipated the light.

When the Nascent Soul saw the flame being successfully contained, a smile appeared on its face and beckoned to the azure light, bringing the flame wisp closer to it.

After revealing a trace of hesitation and fear, the Nascent Soul eye’s brightly glinted and grasped onto the azure light, shoving it down its mouth alongside the wisp of blue flame it contained.

Shortly after, azure light flashed from its body and the Nascent Soul disappeared into mist as it flew back into Han Li’s head.

Han Li’s eyelids trembled several times in response, but his expression unchanged as if he were sleeping. However, his Nascent Soul sat cross-legged inside his Dantian wearing a solemn expression. Its hands were forming an incantation gesture.

...

Half a year later, Han Li emerged from the silent room with a gloomy expression.

The Celestial Ice Flames were truly ferocious. Although he had attempted to refine only a sliver of flame, it had taken half a year of hard effort. However, due to the flame’s extreme coldness, he would need to nurture it inside his body for an additional year before he could truly control it. In order to prevent any mishap, he couldn’t refine any more of the Celestial Ice Flames during this time. As for the Heavenvoid Cauldron, he refined far too little of the Celestial Ice Flames to even think of attempting the next step.

The reason why Han Li left seclusion now instead of continued cultivation was in preparation to meet the silver-haired old man and Cultivator Lu. He wished to see if either of them had any news with regards to Auric Essence. Additionally, he planned on bidding farewell to the Drifting Cloud Sect for some time. During his travels, he would pay a trip to the State of Yuan Wu in order to fulfill his promise with Xin Ruyin [1]. At his current cultivation, exterminating a cultivation clan should only be a trivial effort.

As for the Fu Clan in the Hundred Possibilities Sect and the State of Yuan Wu, they did share some history together. The Fu Clan in the State of Yuan Wu was a distant branch of the Fu Clan in the Hundred Possibilities Sect.

However, the two clans grew distant over a long period of time and the Fu Clan in the State of Yuanwu had joined the Devil Dao, much to the resentment of the main branch who were part of the Heavenly Dao Alliance. As a result, both sides had cut relations to one another.

Han Li grew greatly relieved from this turn of events. Although the State of Yuan Wu belonged to the Devil Dao, there would be few in that country that would be capable of stopping him.

When Han Li left his cave residence, he visited the side residence in pa.s.sing and swept his gaze inside the cave residence to discover Mu Peiling strenuously cultivating in seclusion. From the light glistening from her face, it appeared that she had made great progress.

Pleased with her results, Han Li left without disturbing her. He then headed straight towards the main mountain of the Drifting Cloud Sect.

Six hours later, Han Li silently left the cave residence of the silver-haired old man. The old man didn’t have any concrete information on any Auric Essence, but he had given him information that in two years, there would be a grand trade fair taking place in the Nine Nation Union’s State of Yu. It was known to be the greatest trade fair to take place in the Heavenly South Region.

Many rare materials would gather there from all around the Heavenly South Region. Even half of the continent’s Nascent Soul cultivators would each make a trip there. After all, Nascent Soul cultivators were the ones who most required precious materials. Since common materials and medicines were simply beneath their notice, their only option was to find trade meetings and acquire their rare needs there.

The reason why the trade fair was to be held in the Nine Nations Union was because the Nine Nations Union was considered a neutral power. Due to the threat of the Moulan Spell Warriors, the other three powers had no fear of the Nine Nations Union harboring any wicked schemes. As a result, the cultivators of those three powers had no misgivings partic.i.p.ating in the trade fair.

Currently, Han Li could only hope that Auric Essence would appear at trade fair. Otherwise, he couldn’t possibly know when he’d be able to use the Aureate Sword Formation. He may even have to pay a visit to the legendary Great Empire of Jin, but that was truly too far away.

After Han Li finished speaking to the silver-haired old man about the Auric Essence, he didn’t mention where he wished to go. He only mentioned that he planned on traveling for some time as he just formed his Nascent Soul and that he was taking his leave.

When the silver-haired old man heard him, he wasn’t doubtful in the slightest. He merely mentioned the affiliations of each country and the names of a few Nascent Soul cultivators that he must take notice of and never offend. At that moment, Han Li heard the name of this Eccentric Heavenvenge once more.

Han Li was quite curious towards this cultivator and made a note of him. He then expressed his thanks to the old man and departed.

On the morning of the next day, Han Li carried the most important items in his cave residence on his person and sealed his cave residence off using restrictions. He then departed from the Dreamcloud Mountains, flying in the direction of the State of Yuan Wu.

The Fu Clan in the State of Yuan Wu was once renowned as one of the three great sects in the country. When the Devil Dao invaded over a hundred years ago, this clan hadn’t resisted their invasion in the slightest and even provided a.s.sistance to the Six Devil Dao Sects. As a result, the Fu Clan hadn’t suffered the slightest damage from the invasion; instead, they were given the opportunity to flourish. After overwhelming the other clans in the country, they became the number one clan in the State of Yuan Wu.

Because the Fu Clan had frequently placed many of their disciples into the Devilflame Sect, even giving their clan’s gifted women to the Devilflame Sect’s upper echelon as concubines, they were considered to be completely subservient to the sect. As a result, the Fu Clan gained the support of the Devilflame Sect, the dominating power over the State of Yuan Wu, and wildly flourished in the past hundred years.

[1] In chapter 352, Han Li made a promise to Xin Ruyin to avenge Qi Yuanxiao’s death in exchange for their knowledge on formation spells and tool refinement.