This peculiar scent, a mix of spiciness and an intoxicatingly strange fragrance, suddenly prompted Han Li to flip his hand, revealing the purple wooden box brought by Bai Guo’er.
With a flash of green light, the lid of the box opened on its own, exposing several black-green demon cores.
“With the venom from these Frost Abyss Demon Spider cores, the final layer of the Ten Thousand Poison Primordial Body should be perfected. If I combine the power of this technique with the transformation abilities of the Awakening Art, my physical body will likely become nearly indestructible, rivaling even the legendary True Spirits.” A flicker of excitement crossed Han Li’s face as he murmured to himself.
With a flick of his wrist, the demon cores in the box trembled and leaped out, plopping into the massive cauldron.
In moments, the cores dissolved rapidly within the cauldron, shrinking until they became part of the mysterious liquid.
With another hand seal, the silver flames beneath surged, doubling in height and nearly engulfing the entire cauldron.
Instantly, the liquid inside churned even more violently.
Han Li gazed at the cauldron, his expression calm, though the flicker in his eyes betrayed his solemn focus.
The liquid in this cauldron, refined from hundreds of rare poisons, was based on a formula he had obtained from the Black Domain Exchange—part of the body-tempering method attached to the Heaven-Shaking Gong.
Since Han Li needed to cultivate the second layer of the Spirit Refinement Art, he had to further enhance the resilience of his physical body, making him eager for any method that could strengthen it.
The Heaven-Shaking Gong itself was somewhat mediocre, but the accompanying body-tempering technique was extraordinary.
This was evident from the physique of the warrior who had struck the black gong that day—one of the reasons Han Li had traded for it.
During the Myriad Treasures Convention, he hadn’t immediately studied this foreign body-tempering method, but later, while traveling between the human and demon realms, he thoroughly deciphered it.
The results left him both shocked and delighted!
This technique, called the “Ten Thousand Poison Primordial Body,” was a bizarre secret art far beyond his expectations.
It consisted of seven layers, each offering miraculous effects to strengthen the body.
If all seven layers were mastered, an ordinary human’s physique could rival that of high-ranking demonic cultivators renowned for their physical prowess, while also becoming immune to all poisons.
The only catch was that this body-tempering method was vastly different from ordinary cultivation techniques—it required the body to be soaked in specially prepared toxic liquids to be effective.
Moreover, with each advancing layer, the toxicity of the auxiliary liquid had to become increasingly potent.
Of course, such a method, relying entirely on external forces, was extremely dangerous! According to the technique’s instructions, eight or nine out of ten practitioners would either succumb to the poison or have their bodies collapse under the strain.
And this was under the assumption that the original creators of this method—a foreign race—had inherently stronger physiques than humans.
For an ordinary human attempting this technique, the survival rate would be even lower.
The warrior who had struck the Heaven-Shaking Gong that day, despite his exceptional talent, had only mastered the first two layers before daring to proceed no further.
But for Han Li, this was no major issue.
Thanks to the various spiritual herbs, fruits, and the cultivation of the Vajra Devilish Arts, his physical resilience and poison resistance had long surpassed what any ordinary human could hope to achieve.
Even if the Ten Thousand Poison Primordial Body was exceptionally domineering, it posed little danger to him.
Moreover, he had already begun using the Moonlight Essence obtained from Cai Liuying.
Periodically applying it to his entire body and absorbing its effects through a secret technique had further stabilized his foundation, reducing the risk of backlash to almost negligible levels.
Over the years, Han Li had also consumed small cups of the Red Luo Immortal Wine every few days. To his delight, he discovered that this wine truly had miraculous effects in improving one’s constitution.
However, unlike the drastic changes brought by the Ten Thousand Poison Primordial Body and the Moonlight Essence, the effects of this wine were subtle, slowly altering one’s cultivation aptitude. Without prolonged consumption, the changes were nearly imperceptible.
But persistence yielded obvious and immense benefits.
Thus, Han Li’s confidence in advancing to the late-stage Body Integration realm grew even stronger.
After concluding his travels between the two races and returning to his cave, he immediately began collecting various rare poisons.
The first few layers of the Ten Thousand Poison Primordial Body were manageable, requiring only common toxic materials. However, the final three layers demanded poisons so rare that they were nearly impossible to find within the human realm, forcing him to rely on Qin Su’er’s connections to procure them from the demon race.
After over a century, Han Li had mastered the first six layers and finally gathered the materials for the seventh.
The demon cores of the Frost Abyss Demon Spiders, the last ingredient, were exceptionally rare even among demons. Qin Su’er had spent decades searching before finally securing enough.
Of course, during these years, Han Li had not neglected his cultivation of the Vajra Devilish Arts and his spiritual power.
After confirming that the mysterious power of the green liquid still worked on the Corrosive Poison Grass and successfully cultivating other spirit herbs brought back from the Cold Moon Realm, he refined several elixirs to enhance his Body Integration cultivation.
Each of these elixirs—whether in formula or auxiliary materials—had required immense effort to complete.
Any one of them, if revealed to the outside world, would incite fierce competition among Body Integration elders.
After all, elixirs capable of advancing Body Integration cultivation were exceedingly rare in both the human and demon races, with production rates abysmally low.
Most Body Integration elders hoarded such pills for breakthroughs, rarely daring to consume them for regular cultivation.
But for Han Li, who possessed the mysterious green liquid, these elixirs were consumed every few days—a luxury that would drive others to envy-induced fury.
As a result, his spiritual power advanced at a rate seven or eight times faster than that of ordinary Body Integration cultivators.
Thus, despite only two centuries of cultivation, his spiritual power had grown immensely.
Once he mastered the final layer of the Ten Thousand Poison Primordial Body and cultivated for another century, he would be ready to attempt breaking through to the mid-stage of Body Integration.
With the aid of elixirs, his formidable physique, and his powerful spiritual sense, he was confident in overcoming this bottleneck that stymied most Body Integration cultivators.
After silently reviewing these thoughts, Han Li’s expression shifted. A flash of green light enveloped him as he levitated into a cross-legged position, silently floating above the cauldron.
The green light intensified, and several pieces of clothing flew out.
Naked, Han Li descended into the cauldron.
The multicolored toxic liquid submerged his body, leaving only his head exposed.
A clear cry rang out from the silver flames outside the cauldron. The flames flickered, forming several silver firebirds about a foot in length, circling the cauldron and spewing silver flames.
Instantly, the cauldron became unbearably hot. Billowing clouds of multicolored toxic mist rose rapidly, filling the entire chamber.
Han Li’s figure vanished within the mist, though faint cracking sounds—like bones shattering—occasionally echoed from within.
Days passed, and the sealed area of Han Li’s retreat remained undisturbed.
Apart from occasional visits from Bai Guo’er and his other disciples to check the restrictions, the place remained eerily silent, like a land of the dead.
Within a few years, Qi Lingzi successfully formed his Nascent Soul, becoming a high-ranking guard of Skydeep City.
After decades of arduous cultivation, Bai Guo’er finally reached the late-stage Golden Core realm.
To ensure a smooth Nascent Soul formation, she visited the mist-shrouded entrance of Han Li’s retreat, whispered a prayer, and then left the cave to begin her solitary travels among humans.
As for Hai Da Shao, he advanced to the mid-stage Core Formation realm and, after Bai Guo’er’s departure, became the most frequent visitor to the restricted area.
Thus, two full cycles of sixty years eventually passed.
One day, Hai Da Shao was flying on a crystalline canoe dozens of miles from Han Li’s cave when his expression suddenly changed.
He halted his flight, stopping mid-air, and stared in shock at the distant sky.
There, a towering, straight five-colored tornado had appeared, stretching a thousand feet into the sky like a celestial pillar.
Silver lightning flickered around it, accompanied by continuous rumbling.
The tornado’s location? Directly above his master’s mountain.
“Could it be Master…?”
Sensing the violent fluctuations of heaven and earth’s spiritual energy, Hai Da Shao’s face cycled through emotions before settling on joy.
The celestial phenomenon lasted nearly half a day before dissipating, leaving the sky clear once more.
Without hesitation, Hai Da Shao urged his canoe forward, transforming into a blue streak that shot toward the mountain.
Moments later, he landed hastily outside the cave.
“Master! You’ve emerged from seclusion! That celestial phenomenon just now—was it you? Congratulations on your breakthrough!” Hai Da Shao rushed into the hall, where a man and a woman sat, and immediately bowed to the man in excitement.
The man was none other than Han Li, freshly emerged from seclusion. The woman beside him was Ice Phoenix, who had also been cultivating in the cave for years.
“Yue Tian, the celestial phenomenon was indeed caused by my advancement to mid-stage Body Integration. Your Aunt Ice had to activate the cave’s restrictions to suppress most of the spiritual energy fluctuations—otherwise, it might have drawn unwanted attention.” Han Li smiled at his disciple.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage