Chapter 1727: Harvest

A crisp sound rang out as the golden disk erupted with blinding golden light. Under the influence of an overwhelming force of laws, it twisted and deformed before shattering into countless fragments.

The golden disk proved to be astonishingly fragile, dissolving into countless specks of light in an instant and vanishing without a trace, leaving only faint spatial ripples in the void.

At the same time the treasure was destroyed, deep within the Spirit Realm, in a hidden chamber beneath the ocean, a tall, gaunt figure sitting motionless on the ground suddenly raised its head. Two eerie green flames flickered to life within its hollow eye sockets, illuminating its face—a skeletal visage of stark white bone. The flames danced wildly in its eyes, casting an unsettling glow.

Not far in front of the skeleton stood twelve ancient bronze lamps, each about a foot tall, their flames varying in size—some as large as eggs, others as thick as thumbs.

A flicker of surprise and suspicion crossed the skeleton’s gaze. It tilted its head in thought before seeming to recall something. Suddenly, it opened its mouth and spat out a silver glow.

Within the glow floated a silver disk, palm-sized and identical in shape to the golden disk destroyed in the Moon Realm, save for its color and size. However, the silver disk was now riddled with countless fine cracks and, the moment it was expelled, let out a mournful cry before disintegrating into nothingness.

At this sight, the skeleton’s eye flames flared violently, swelling to the size of fists. A furious roar erupted from its jaws, filled with rage and shock.

The skeletal figure abruptly stood up. In its fury, a bony hand lashed out toward the empty air, summoning a massive black claw that materialized from spatial distortions and slammed into a nearby wall.

With a thunderous crash, the thick wall was pulverized. Yet, still unable to vent its wrath, the skeleton turned toward another wall, its maw gaping as black light swirled within, as if preparing to unleash another attack.

But then its gaze flickered, landing on the twelve ancient lamps with their flickering green flames. The green fire in its eyes dimmed slightly, and it slowly closed its jaws, regaining some semblance of composure.

The skeleton gnashed its fangs for a long moment before finally letting out a resentful snort and sitting back down in meditation.

Soon, silence returned to the chamber, the only movement being the faint green flames of the twelve lamps, casting wavering shadows across the room.

—

With a flash of emerald light, the blade of the Profound Heavenly Sword dispersed and vanished, reverting to its original form—a simple wooden rod.

Then, with a clear chime, the sword transformed into a ball of yellow light and drifted toward Han Li’s arm, where a faint yellow mark reappeared on his skin.

The Profound Heavenly Sword had sealed itself once more!

Han Li stared at the mark on his arm, his face a mix of shock and joy.

He exhaled deeply and attempted to stand up from the crater. The moment the golden disk was destroyed, the excruciating pain in his body had vanished, leaving him with a profound sense of having narrowly escaped death.

But Han Li’s relief was premature. The instant he straightened up, before he could make another move, his legs suddenly gave way, and he collapsed back to the ground. His entire body went numb, losing all sensation.

Alarmed, Han Li immediately swept his divine sense through his body—only to let out a bitter laugh.

Despite being at the peak of the late-stage Body Integration realm, his dantian was completely empty, devoid of even a trace of spiritual energy.

Evidently, the single strike from the Profound Heavenly Sword, while devastatingly powerful, had drained every last drop of his mana. Had it not been for the mysterious energy that had also been absorbed, he wouldn’t have been able to activate the sword at all without his Golden Body Dharma Form by his side.

As it stood, he had merely exhausted his mana without suffering severe blood essence loss or a drop in cultivation—a stroke of immense luck.

However, his meridians had been overfilled with the mysterious energy earlier, causing subtle damage. Now that both the energy and his mana were suddenly gone, the backlash had struck.

Still, Han Li wasn’t overly concerned. Given his body’s formidable regenerative abilities, these injuries would heal within moments. The real issue was the sheer volume of mana he had lost, which would take considerable time to restore.

Nevertheless, his current mood was one of overwhelming joy.

Though he had been confident that, with the aid of spirit medicines like the Soaring Dragon Pill, he would eventually reach the late-stage Body Integration realm, advancing so abruptly had saved him five or six centuries—perhaps even a millennium—of arduous cultivation.

Compared to this, his current predicament was trivial.

A faint smile tugged at Han Li’s lips as his gaze shifted toward the center of the platform.

There, his three-headed, six-armed Golden Body floated in midair, also seated in meditation with all six eyes closed.

Through the mental link between his main Nascent Soul and the second Nascent Soul, Han Li instantly confirmed that the latter was unharmed. However, having leaped so many cultivation stages in one go, it was now desperately stabilizing its newfound realm—lest it suddenly drop a level or two from instability.

This was only possible because Han Li’s main body was already a Body Integration cultivator. Had the second Nascent Soul been an independent entity, the sheer disparity in cultivation would have triggered a backlash of inner demons, driving it to madness and death.

Even so, the second Nascent Soul wouldn’t be capable of combat for years. Without a decade or more of meditation to suppress potential inner demons, its realm would remain precarious.

What truly amazed Han Li, however, was the current state of his Indestructible Vajra Body. After being repeatedly melted and reforged by the mysterious energy, its surface was now covered in intricate violet-golden runes, and its aura had more than doubled in intensity.

The Indestructible Vajra Body had already been formidable; now, with its power amplified, its potential was terrifying.

This was yet another unexpected boon for Han Li. Though he tried to maintain a composed expression, the faint smile on his lips betrayed his delight.

An hour later, Han Li sat up straight and resumed a meditative posture. The damage to his meridians had mostly healed.

With a flick of his wrist, several vials of different colors appeared in his hand. He poured out a handful of fragrant pills and swallowed them all at once. Then, with another motion, the vials vanished, replaced by two exceptionally vibrant emerald spirit stones.

Without hesitation, Han Li closed his eyes and began absorbing the pure spiritual energy from the top-grade spirit stones, aided by the medicinal effects.

Ironically, not long ago, he had been desperate to expel the excess energy flooding his body. Now, with his mana completely drained, he was forced to painstakingly gather it back bit by bit.

The absurdity of the situation left Han Li speechless.

Time passed swiftly, and before long, most of the day had gone by.

Han Li’s closed eyes suddenly snapped open, a glint of sharp light flashing briefly within them. His mana had recovered somewhat.

Frowning slightly, he slowly rose to his feet.

Due to his two-stage breakthrough, his dantian’s capacity for mana had expanded far beyond its previous limits. Despite the dense spiritual energy of this place and the aid of pills and spirit stones, after all this time, he had only regained about twenty percent of his total reserves.

That said, even this twenty percent was comparable to nearly half of his pre-breakthrough mana.

However, Han Li couldn’t afford to meditate here for days. Deeming himself sufficiently recovered to act, he decided to move.

Instead of heading for the exit, he strode toward the center of the stone platform.

Though the most valuable treasure—the golden disk—had been destroyed, the remaining artifacts were still worth collecting.

The emerald-green chair before him was one such item.

Earlier, when activated alongside the golden disk, it had radiated brilliant light and shimmering runes, clearly possessing extraordinary properties.

With a flick of his sleeve, a wave of azure light swept over the chair, causing it to vanish into his storage. After scanning the surroundings, Han Li blurred into motion, appearing before one of the armored puppets.

Compared to the chair, Han Li was far more interested in these puppets.

Though they had reverted to lifeless statues after the golden disk’s destruction, Han Li didn’t underestimate them. When active, their spiritual pressure had rivaled that of Body Integration cultivators. If he could control them, the benefits would be immense.

With this thought, he extended his divine sense into the puppet before him. Moments later, his expression turned peculiar.

The puppet’s internal structure was shockingly crude and simple. The only puzzling element was the core—instead of ordinary spirit stones, it housed strange blood-red crystals Han Li had never seen before.

These crystals were smooth as mirrors but veined with countless golden threads that flickered faintly. Their spiritual light was dim, as if on the verge of extinguishing.

Clearly, the puppet’s earlier actions had drained most of the crystals’ energy. At full power, the puppet likely had only one or two strikes left.

Han Li frowned for a long while before finally flicking his sleeve, sending a wave of azure light to store the puppet away.