Under closer examination, he discovered that the little bells were emitting a dense wood spiritual Qi; they were actually small golden flowers that resembled bells.
They appeared realistic as if they were bells forged from pure gold.
“There are truly many Woodbud Flowers, and they seem to be over a thousand years old.” When he saw the flowers, the huge ape hummed and wore an astonished expression.
Han Li chuckled, “Woodbud Flowers? You’ve seen them before. How about the Golden Marrow Crystal Insects and the Golden Corral Sand?”
The small beast’s eyes flickered with joy, but he calmly said, “I fear there isn’t enough, but the hundred of flowers will qualify for an exchange of ten pairs of beetles in accordance with our agreement.”
Han Li smiled and he tossed the jade box in front of him, then floating in the air. Then he flipped his other hand and produced a long jade box.
The lit open to produce a box brimming with Woodbud Flowers.
The scene left many of the demon beasts dumbstruck.
Han Li looked at the demon beasts and leisurely said, “This should be enough. Take out whatever crystal insects and coral sand you’ve brought along.”
Startled, the demon beasts whispered a few words to one another. Eventually, the small beast took out fist-sized crystals, and the other demon beasts took out palm-sized black gourds.
In the blink of an eye, fifteen crystals and three black gourds appeared in the hall.
Han Li’s eyes lit up and he silently reached for them.
Suddenly, one of the crystals floated and jumped into his hand.
Han Li closely examined it.
The crystal was clear and translucent. It was clearly condensed from a pair of pure-white insects, unmoving as if they were fossilized.
His immense spiritual sense instantly turned into countless threads and penetrated its crystal body, affecting the small insect on the top of the crystal.
A layer of milky white light appeared from the surface of the insect. Then, it spat a drop of golden liquid from its mouth which seeped onto its body.
Bright light radiated from the crystal, filling the air with sparkling golden light.
When Han Li saw this, his expression stirred and he exerted strength into his grip on the crystal, forcing an immense pressure on it.
The crystal’s body simply flickered with light, but it wasn’t harmed at all.
Han Li muttered, “It really is a Golden Marrow Crystal Insect!”
“Senior, don’t worry. We may be mighty bold, but we’d never deceive you.” The small bull-headed beast wryly laughed.
“Is that so?” Han Li neutrally replied. Then, he put down the crystal and flicked his hand, summoning a black gourd into his grasp.
He tilted it, pouring a river of purple-gold sand out from it. Soon, a meter-tall pile appeared on the ground.
Han Li pinched a grain of sand from the pile and brought it to his eye.
He stared at it for a long while and poured out the sand from the other two black gourds into one combined pile.
Han Li looked at the sand pile and casually said, “Not bad, this Golden Coral Sand is of the best quality. With the addition of the fifteen pairs of crystal insects, the two boxes of Woodbud Flowers are still more valuable, but I’ll still agree to the trade.”
When the four demon beasts heard this, they nodded with joy.
Han Li tossed the two boxes over, and the small beast and the huge gold-furred ape carefully put it away.
Meanwhile, Han Li swept his sleeve across the ground. In an azure mist, the crystals and the gourds of sand disappeared without a trace.
“I am satisfied with this trade. If you find any Golden Coral Sand or other rare items in the future, I will trade them for items you need. I don’t only have Woodbud Flowers, and I won’t have you take a loss. You may leave.” With no further intention of having the demons stay, Han Li dismissed them.
Under the pressure of Han Li’s immense aura, the demon beasts didn’t dare to say anything further and they respectfully and carefully withdrew from Han Li’s cave residence. They promptly took off in a demonic wind.
The demon beasts flew for over five hundred kilometers in a single stretch before stopping and letting out a long sigh. They then gathered together again.
The huge boar excitedly snorted, “This is great! I didn’t expect that we’d get so many Woodbud Flowers in a single go. Furthermore, they’re all over a thousand years old. If we deliver all of them, the Tian Peng race definitely won’t punish us even if we don’t offer anything else.”
The huge ape frowned and said, “Yes, I didn’t expect this person to truly acquire so many of the flowers. If I remember correctly, Woodbud Flowers didn’t in such numbers on that mountain. Could it be when he scouted the mountain, he found other secret areas? From his tone, it seems he had even more flowers.”
The three-headed python looked around and said, “That is most likely so. Having presented so many Woodbud Flowers at once, it's very possible he has even more. The Tian Peng Race heavily values these flowers. They must be rare. They are most likely a specialty of our Hidden Black Mountains.”
The small beast pondered for a moment and said, “Regardless of how rare the flowers are, it has nothing to do with us. So long as we can endure for a hundred years and remove our slave markings, we’ll be able to leave far away. However, we must supply as many high-grade spirit stones to that Master as we can. Otherwise, if we make a mistake, all these years would’ve been wasted.”
“With the Woodbud Flowers, wasting another hundred years won’t be an issue. But what’s key is that we truly don’t have many spirit stones. Low-grade spirit stones are worthless to us and mid-grade spirit stones are worthless to the Master. As for high-grade spirit stones, they’ve all been exhausted from the mine. Furthermore, that Master also wants us to give him four differently attributed top-grade spirit stones. Let alone the Hidden Black Mountains, top-grade spirit stones spotted all around the island are all water-attributed. It is beyond our ability to exchange them.” The yellow-furred ape hummed.
The huge boar muttered, “In accordance to the Master’s words, the top-grade spirit stones are required to break through a bottleneck. Otherwise, it will be very difficult to achieve.”
The four demons turned silent for a spell.
The huge three-headed python turned around and its center head slowly said, “If it were before, it’d be hard to say, but now that this powerful Senior has come from a different place. Perhaps he has other attributed spirit stones.”
“That is something we’ve all thought off, but how can we use top-grade spirit stones at our cultivation? If we exchange for that item, I fear we will provoke his suspicion. We should think of other methods first. If we have no other options, we will trade with him,” the small beast carefully said.
“That sounds reasonable. After we deal with the Tian Peng Race’s envoy, we’ll consider it further,” the huge ape proposed.
The other beasts eventually agreed one after another, having come up with nothing else.
The four demons then turned into four clouds of demonic Qi and flew off in different directions.
At that moment, Han Li was inside his hidden room and was fiddling with the crystal insects. His eyes wandered as he pondered.
The Golden Marrow Crystal Insects were incredibly famous throughout demons and humans, so he only managed to acquire a pitiful few of them alive.
He also discovered that each and every single pair of them came at immense cost, enough to bankrupt a high-grade cultivator.
As such, when Han Li heard that the grade six and seven demon beasts were able to provide crystal insects to him, he was overwhelmed with joy.
The crystal insects had many uses. Not only could he use it as a primary ingredient to progress his cultivation, but it also had clear results in body refinement.
By applying the golden marrow that the insects spat out onto his body, he could easily cleanse his own marrow and essence, strengthening his body an entire step further. However, with the immense power of his current body, he figured the results would be less than he would expect.
Rather than these two uses, Han Li was more hopeful of the more obscure third use.
That was to use the crystal insect to use it to temper his own Provenance True Devil Art’s projection into having a true body.
With the vast power of this ability, he could fuse it with the Provenance True Devil to produce an extraordinary incarnation ability with the power of flattening mountains and silencing oceans.
Naturally, similar abilities appeared in Buddhist Sects which involved condensing Vajra Arts. It wasn’t a complicated technique and many knew of it, but in addition to requiring supplementary materials that involved the Golden Marrow Crystal Insect, but it required several other legendary spiritual medicines. These spirit medicines were rare to the point they were equivalent to the Golden Marrow Crystal Insects. If he wanted to collect them all, they would be a matter of complete luck, so he couldn't rely on it.
Han Li stared at the crystal in his hand and sank into thought.
He suddenly flicked his wrist and produced another four crystals in front of him.
Condensing the Provenance True Devil Art’s projection would take ten pairs of crystal insects. As for the remaining five pairs, he would bluntly use them to reinforce his body. Furthermore, they would assist him in breaking through his bottleneck at mid-Deity Transformation stage.
With all that smoothly decided, he had plans for the next five years.
Without any hesitation, he took a crystal into his hand and summoned pure azure light around it, then closing his eyes.
Underneath the provocation of spiritual power, the crystal formed from two still insects suddenly began to shake and open their mouths, each producing a golden drop.
The two drops of liquid passed through the crystals and flowed down onto Han Li’s hand where it fused with the azure spiritual Qi.
A moment later, the golden liquid glowed brightly with brilliant gold light.
The light and the azure Qi fused together slowly spread down his arm. In the blink of an eye, it covered his arm in golden light entirely.
Once the golden light faded away, the skin on Han Li’s arm had turned a shimmering gold.
Han Li held his golden arm and muttered to himself.
Golden light faintly pulsed from the arm once more and a layer of shimmering white floated off from it and floated in the air.
Han Li calmly breathed and had a tranquil face. Then he used his spiritual power to continue circulating this wondrous effect.
