According to the information he'd gleaned from the jade badge, this so-called true Kirin essence did indeed exist, and it was formed by the wisp of chaotic Qi that appeared during the birth of true spirit beings.
If a normal being were to devour it, they'd experience incredible benefits.
The essence wouldn't be able to allow one to evolve into a true spirit being, but it could completely transform their bodies and drastically enhance their cultivation bases. It was quite possible that Spatial Tempering Stage beings that devoured it could progress straight to the Body Integration Stage.
Taking into account how rare true spirit beings were in the Spirit Realm, this type of true spirit essence was naturally also exceedingly scarce.
Furthermore, some of this true spirit essence had been tracked down and used up by powerful beings from various races already, so this substance was even rarer than true spirit beings themselves in the Spirit Realm.
According to the information in the jade badge, true spirit essence originally existed in a gaseous form, but due to the fact that the substance contained a vast quantity of essential power, it was impossible for living beings to refine it in a short time following consumption. As such, after a certain period of time, the true spirit essence would form crystalline particles within the body of the living being that had consumed it.
These particles contained true spirit level essential power, and depending on the constitutions of their consumers, it would take several decades to several centuries before it could be truly refined.
Han Li was quite ecstatic after reading through this part, but the rest of the information in the jade badge was like a bucket of cold water to the head.
It was said that after transforming into crystalline particles, the true spirit essence would've been completely assimilated by the consumer already, so there was no way for anyone else to absorb and refine it.
If someone other than the original consumer were to try and forcibly absorb the essential power within these particles, the particles would simply disintegrate and return to heaven and earth.
There was even an additional note which stated that this type of assimilation was extremely complete, meaning that there was no way to reverse it, and a warning had been enclosed to those who had obtained this essential power to keep that in mind.
Han Li was naturally completely distraught upon seeing this.
He stared blankly at the particle that had drifted out of the small vial, and a complex look appeared in his eyes.
After a long while, Han Li finally came to a decision. "The information in this jade badge may not necessarily be accurate; I have to give this a try for myself no matter what."
Thus, he made a hand seal with one hand while pointing a finger at the translucent particle, and an azure thread shot forth before encompassing the particle in a flash.
Han Li then cast several incantation seals into the azure thread, and the particle within it began to change into different colors.
In the beginning, it was completely transparent, but it then took on a faint red hue before darkening to an inky-black color. In the end, it turned into a shimmering golden color after a flash of spiritual light.
Han Li's eyes narrowed upon seeing this, and he immediately switched to another hand seal.
Many runes then emerged in the air surrounding the golden particle, and they instantly formed a miniature formation with the particle at its very center.
After that, Han Li opened his mouth to blast forth a stream of azure nascent flames, which disappeared into the miniature formation in a flash.
A dull thump rang out as all of the runes in the formation began to glow with dazzling light, and the azure nascent flames easily combined as one with the formation.
In the next instant, wisps of azure flames appeared all over the formation, enveloping the golden particle and commencing the refinement process.
Initially, the particle remained completely motionless, but as time gradually passed, the golden light on its surface began to waver, and it became brighter and brighter as a low buzzing sound rang out.
Han Li's heart sank upon seeing this, and before he had a chance to switch to another hand seal, a dull thump erupted from within the formation.
The golden particle abruptly disappeared, and an egg-sized cloud of golden mist appeared in its place.
The mist swirled around as an astonishing boom akin to a thunderclap rang out from within, following which it swelled drastically to around 10 feet in size, and it was only continuing to expand.
The azure flames around it were instantly torn apart, and the golden mist was flashing erratically, clearly having completely lost control and was about to explode at any moment.
Han Li's expression changed drastically as he thought of the fearsome power imbued within the particle, and one of his hands suddenly turned inky-black as he made a grabbing motion toward the particle.
Grey light erupted from his fingertips, forming a grey light barrier that enshrouded the golden mist within it in a flash.
Immediately thereafter, a dull rumbling sound rang out as golden and grey light intertwined with one another.
The Divine Essencefused Light then began to flash erratically as if it were about to be blown apart any moment, and it was completely unable to repress the power of the golden mist.
A fearful expression flashed through Han Li's eyes as his body hurtled backward in retreat toward a corner of the secret chamber. At the same time, he swept a sleeve through the air, and a small crystalline shield appeared up ahead.
The shield swelled to several tens of feet in size in a flash, and almost as soon as Han Li had adopted all of these measures, the Divine Essencefused Light finally exploded as countless beams of golden light erupted forth from within.
Han Li's heart immediately sank upon seeing this, and he instantly poured forth as much magic power as he could into the giant shield before him.
At the same time, golden light flashed from his body, and golden scales appeared all over his skin.
He had no choice but to withstand the force of this explosion, and as for whether his secret chamber or even his entire cave abode could remain intact in the aftermath, that was something that was known only to the heavens.
However, an unexpected scene then ensued.
After breaking through the grey light barrier, the golden mist didn't continue to swell or explode. Instead, it abruptly surged upward as a pillar of golden light, piercing through the restriction and the ceiling like a hot knife through butter.
A passageway with a radius of around half a foot was punctured into the ceiling in the blink of an eye, and the golden pillar of light disappeared in a flash.
Han Li looked up with an astonished expression on his face to find that there was sunlight shining into the secret chamber from the hole in the ceiling. Immediately thereafter, an earth-shattering explosion rang out in the air above, and all of the world's origin Qi around the entire mountain began to surge and churn violently.
Han Li's lips twitched as he raised a hand to cast a white incantation seal into the hole on the ceiling, and the hole began to seal over at a rapid rate amid flashes of white light, completely recovering in the blink of an eye.
After that, Han Li flew out of the secret chamber as a streak of azure light, and he appeared in the air above his cave abode after just a few flashes. He raised his head to look up into the sky, and his brows furrowed slightly at the sight that he was greeted by.
In the air above, bursts of fierce golden winds were howling through the sky.
Below these gusts of golden winds, countless specks of five-colored light had appeared, and they were converging from all directions, creating quite an extraordinary spectacle to behold.
Han Li's facial muscles convulsed spasmodically upon seeing this.
Thank heavens he hadn't swallowed the particle to refine it in his stomach. Otherwise, he would've most likely been blown up into smithereens already.
Of course, such a massive commotion naturally alerted the other cultivators residing on the spirit mountain as well.
Thus, spiritual light flashed all over the mountain, and many beings emerged one after another. Some banded together with their acquaintances, and all of them were pointing up at the phenomenon taking place up above while conversing spiritedly with one another.
Han Li's brows furrowed as he also appraised the gusts of fierce golden winds from down below, scrambling to think of a good excuse to explain the situation if someone were to arrive and investigate the situation.
Right at this moment, a burst of hearty laughter suddenly rang out from a certain part of the spirit mountain.
"Haha, who's experimenting with a new secret technique here? To think they'd gathered so much of the world's origin Qi, and of such a high purity as well. I'm refining a treasure that requires a vast amount of the world's origin Qi as a catalyst, so this will save me a lot of trouble."
As soon as the voice trailed off, a streak of crimson light shot forth from down below before plunging headfirst into the golden winds up above.
All of a sudden, scorching flames erupted for around ten feet out of the streak of crimson light, forming a crimson fire wyrm that was over 100 feet in length.
The fiery wyrm expelled a vast expanse of shimmering red light out of its mouth with a loud rumbling boom, and the astonishing golden winds in the sky were all completely swept away by this red light in just the span of a few breaths.
At this point, the crimson wyrm had already swelled to over 200 feet in length, and a burst of raucous laughter rant out as it transformed into a humanoid figure that was around 10 feet tall amid a flash of red light.
The humanoid figure appeared to be an elderly man in his sixties with a set of rough facial features and a head of white hair. The man wore a set of purple robes, and was appraising an item in his hand with a delighted look on his face.
This was a crimson gourd that was around half a foot tall, and there were two shimmering red images engraved on its surface, one of which was a ball of flames, while other was a ferocious looking wyrm. The image of the wyrm was completely identical to the fiery wyrm that had just appeared.
"What? It's Eccentric Xu!"
"When did that old monster come back?"
"He seems to be even more powerful than he was before."
A stir ran through many of the foreign beings down below at the sight of the purple-robed man, and many of them seemed to recognize him.
Han Li faltered slightly upon seeing this before sweeping his spiritual sense toward the elderly man to find that this was a late-Spatial Tempering Stage being.
On a spirit mountain where no Body Integration Stage beings resided, a being of his cultivation base was indeed quite formidable. However, a cultivation base of this caliber wasn't enough to draw such wary reactions from all of the Spatial Tempering Stage beings present, so Han Li was feeling a little perplexed.
However, seeing as the phenomenon created by this essential particle had been cleared away without attracting too much attention, Han Li naturally heaved a sigh of relief.
Thus, he returned to his cave abode as a streak of azure light.
Upon his return, he repaired the damaged restriction in his secret chamber, then sat down in a cross-legged manner again.
He raised a hand, and a swath of black light surged forth from within his sleeve as the Weeping Soul Beast appeared before him again.
Han Li stared blankly at the beast for a long while before finally heaving a faint sigh.
