Moments later, Han Li entered his secret chamber before sitting down with his legs crossed.
His pupils then contracted slightly as he inspected his surroundings and caught sight of three greyish-white stone blocks in one corner of the secret chamber.
Those were none other than the chunks of the stone block he'd obtained from the underwater cave abode belonging to that blue wyrm. Back then, he'd used his Gold Devouring Beetles to split the stone block into three, but he was too busy with cultivation to pay any heed to this treasure.
The material was extraordinarily heavy, and Han Li had originally intended to refine it into some kind of treasures, but all of the Gold Devouring Beetles that had consumed some of this material then began to mutate, and that made Han Li rather hesitant.
The fact that this thing was able to make fully matured Gold Devouring Beetles mutate again was a sign of just how precious it was. However, spirit insect mutation wasn't necessarily always a good thing. Even though most mutations resulted in positive enhancements, there were also quite a few instances where the contrary proved to be true.
At the very least, aside from the fact that his Gold Devouring Beetles had attained more resolute bodies and grown heavier, Han Li was yet to identify any other changes.
Generally speaking, it was very difficult for spirit insects that had mutated once to mutate for a second time, which was why he hadn't fed this entire stone block to his Gold Devouring Beetles, and why it had been so difficult for him to decide just how he was going to use this material.
However, he was very intrigued by the Gold Devouring Beetle Monarch that the elderly man had mentioned, so he certainly wasn't going to recklessly induce mutations in his Gold Devouring Beetles again. Otherwise, if he were to obtain the method to nurture the beetle monarch someday, only to find that it didn't apply to his beetles anymore due to their mutations, that would be quite a devastating blow.
Furthermore, during his journey, Han Li had thought of a better way to use this incredibly heavy stone.
Thus, blue light flashed within his eyes, and he raised an arm to reveal an inky-black hand within his robes.
His five fingers tremored slightly, and black light flashed over his palm, following which a miniature mountain that was only several inches in size appeared.
The mountain instantly expanded to around 10 feet in size amid a flash of grey light before hovering in front of Han Li.
Golden light flashed from Han Li's body as the projection with three heads and six arms surfaced behind him, and he let loose a low cry as he the six arms of the projection made a grabbing motion in unison toward the stone blocks in the corner.
Several years ago, prior to fusing the true spirit bloods of the Kun Peng and the Five-Colored Peacock into his body, Han Li wouldn't have been able to move these stone blocks by grabbing at them from afar.
However, not only had his cultivation base progressed to the late-Deity Transformation Stage since then, his body had also become a lot more powerful due to the effect of the two true spirit bloods.
Thus, he was able to move the stone blocks in such a manner now, and one of them wobbled before slowly flying toward him, causing the entire secret chamber to tremor in the process.
Brilliant grey light erupted from the Divine Essencefused Mountain hovering before Han Li, and countless grey threads of light shot forth, encapsulating the oncoming stone block in a watertight cocoon.
At the same time, the six arms of the Provenance True Devil Projection behind him also moved in unison, and the stone block shot forth directly toward the black mountain.
At this moment, Han Li began to chant something while pointing a finger toward the mountain.
The Divine Essencefused Light immediately swelled further in size while a large hole opened up on the mountain face that was aimed toward the stone block.
Brilliant grey light erupted from that hole, and this was only a secret technique that Han Li had mastered after progressing to a certain cultivation base, as well as completely refining this mountain to the extent that it was almost an extension of his own body.
Prior to cultivating the Hundred Meridian Refinement Mantra or even before he'd left the massive island, he'd have most likely been unable to accomplish this.
The stone block was drawn into the hole that appeared on the mountain by the grey threads, and the impact of the collision made the Divine Essencefused Mountain tremor before flying back for several tens of feet, then thudding heavily onto the ground.
Following another astonishing dull thump, even the restriction light barrier around the secret chamber tremored violently, and the base of the mountain had sunk around a foot into the ground.
The Divine Essencefused Mountain was quite heavy in itself, and their combined weight had finally become too much for the floor to handle.
Thankfully, the entire secret chamber had been fortified by Han Li with restrictions in advance, so it wasn't going to actually completely collapse.
At this moment, Han Li was looking at the hole on the side of the Divine Essencefused Mountain with a peculiar look on his face. He made a hand seal before opening his mouth, and a ball of silver flames shot forth from within.
As soon as the fireball emerged out of his mouth, it transformed into a Fire Raven, then also plunged headfirst into the hole on the Divine Essencefused Mountain at his behest.
Han Li then immediately flicked his wrist to hurl his storage bracelet through the air, and it shimmered with spiritual light before summoning a series of vials, jars, and wooden boxes that appeared on the ground before Han Li.
Han Li swept his spiritual sense toward these containers, and all of their lids flew off to reveal all types of tool refinement materials, most of which extremely rare materials that were very difficult to find.
Most of them were secured using a large number of spirit stones and spirit medicines in Deep Heaven City, while the rest had been obtained in the human world and from the Tian Peng Race.
Han Li inspected these materials and immediately found the ones he needed.
He swept a sleeve through the air, and a swath of azure light surged forth, sweeping up a dozen or so types of materials in its wake before sending all of them into the hole on the small mountain.
A delightful cry then erupted within the hole, following which silver light flashed from within along with a burst of scorching heat, causing the nearby air to warp and blur.
Han Li adopted a serious expression as he raised a hand, and a burst of grey light appeared at the center of his palm.
The Divine Essencefused Mountain seemed to have resonated with him as it also lit up with grey light, and the hole on the side of the mountain slowly sealed over while the scorching heat also disappeared.
Han Li was using the Divine Essencefused Mountain as a hearth, while deploying the Spirit Engulfing Fire Raven to completely melt that greyish-white stone into the mountain.
Han Li was looking forward to what properties the stone block could contribute to the Divine Essencefused Mountain. If it could become indestructible and as immensely heavy as the stone block, then its destructive power would be significantly enhanced.
Of course, even with his Spirit Engulfing Heavenly Flames, it wouldn't be a simple matter to melt these stone blocks. Otherwise, Han Li would've thrown in all three at once rather than only one.
However, even with just this one stone block, it would take around three or four decades to melt it into the mountain. If he'd done all three at once, then it'd at least require a century.
If Han Li had to use his own Nascent Soul flames to refine the stone blocks, then he naturally wouldn't engage in such a time-consuming activity. However, he could afford to do this now seeing as he could use the Spirit Engulfing Heavenly Flames instead.
He would just have to leave the Divine Essencefused Mountain here for over 100 years.
With that in mind, Han Li chanted something and cast an incantation seal onto the small mountain while the six golden hands on the projection behind his back all made a grabbing motion in unison.
The small mountain instantly swayed before shrinking down to around a foot in size, then slowly flying over to a corner of the secret chamber and slowly descending.
Before the stone block was fused into the mountain, Han Li wouldn't be able to withdraw it back into his own body, so he could only set it aside like this.
After that, Han Li paused for a brief moment of contemplation before grabbing the air toward the storage bracelet, and a white jade box immediately flew out from within before landing on his palm.
He swept his other hand over the lid of the box, and the lid immediately flew off to reveal a thumb-sized crimson fruit core.
At the same time, an extremely rich medicinal aroma wafted toward him.
This was none other than the Azure Shifting Fruit core that Han Li had obtained during his time in the Tian Peng Race.
With this item, he'd be able to nurture Azure Shifting Fruits through the use of his small vial, then refine the legendary Heavenshifting Pill. He'd consume the Heavenshifting Pill with his Black Flame Pills, and if the former's enhancement effect were to activate, then the chances of him breaking through his bottleneck would be significantly increased.
Han Li held the fruit core between two fingers and carefully inspected it through narrowed eyes, then instantly cast his spiritual sense out of the secret chamber.
Moments later, the azure barrier of light around him tremored, and a ball of black light flew in; it was none other than his second Nascent Soul.
Han Li placed the lid onto the jade box containing the fruit core before tossing toward the second Nascent Soul without even uttering a single word.
The second Nascent Soul waved a little hand through the air to catch the box in an extremely rehearsed manner, then disappeared into the light barrier behind it again.
Having done all that, Han Li heaved a sigh of relief before slowly closing his eyes.
What he had to do next was to work on the new sword art he obtained to see if this Spring Dawn Sword Formation truly was as lethal as the sword art proclaimed it to be. After that, he'd be able to decide whether to give up on his Aureate Sword Formation and refine his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords again.
The Spring Dawn Sword Formation just so happened to be something that could be used by late-Deity Transformation cultivators, and it was indeed far more complex and profound than the Aureate Sword Formation.
Time passed by slowly, and three months later, Han Li opened his eyes to awaken from his meditative state.
However, there was a peculiar look in his eyes and a hesitant expression on his face.
"So that's what Spring Dawn means. I was wondering why such a strange name had been given to it; turns out it's a sword formation that primarily draws on the power of an illusionary technique. That's quite surprising. In that case, won't the effectiveness of this formation depend on the power of the enemy's spiritual sense and whether the cultivation arts they're using are potent against illusionary techniques? How am I supposed to make that judgment call?" Han Li's brows furrowed with indecision.
He pondered this issue for a long while, weighing up the benefits and the drawbacks, before finally making a decision.
Back when Qing Yuanzi created this Spring Dawn Sword Formation, he would've had to give up on the Aureate Sword Formation as well, so it had to have some properties that placed it well above the Aureate Sword Formation.
At present, the Aureate Sword Formation definitely had no issues against cultivators of the same cultivation base, but it was quite difficult for it to do much against Body Integration Stage beings.
Most importantly, the Azure Coil Sword Formation after the Spring Dawn Sword Formation could also only be set up using the refined flying swords.
As such, Han Li finally decided to give up on the Aureate Sword Formation in the end.
As for refining a brand new set of flying swords, that was something that Han Li didn't even consider.
After all, with things like flying swords, it wasn't a case of the more the better. He only needed enough to set up his sword formations, and too many flying swords would make it too difficult to nurture all of them at once.
Han Li didn't want to ruin his bonded treasure due to his greed.
