After his outburst, Han Li felt the last trace of distress from Monarch Soul Divergence’s passing dissolve. In any case, since he planned on gathering the storm’s lightning, he didn’t want any interruptions. With a long sigh, he slapped his storage pouch and took out various colored spell flags, sending them off in every direction with the wave of his hand, burrowing into the ground without a trace.
He looked at the unceasing lightning in the sky and the corner of his mouth twitched. His body glowed with light as he floated a hundred meters in the air. Forming a strange hand gesture, he began to mutter an incantation.
Suddenly, various-colored light flashed from down below. Muffled pops sounded out followed by several pillars of luminescence emerging to the sky and forming huge spell flags. They stood off the ground and remained completely motionless.
Continuing his incantations, the spell flags beneath him began to release threads of spiritual Qi and slowly took the form of a thirty-meter-wide spirit gathering spell formation.Within the brilliant glow, talisman characters began to rise from the center, fully activating it.
In that instant, the lightning flashing in the distant skies were suddenly attracted towards the formation and gradually grew closer as the sounds of thunder quickened.
Han Li narrowed his eyes and ceased casting incantations. He flipped his hand and summoned a slender jade bottle, a magic tool he had specifically refined to capture the lightning.
He released it into the air and struck it with an azure spell seal, causing it to quickly spin several times before it held still in the air.
At that moment, Han Li clapped his hands and raised them, releasing two dense bolts of golden lightning, both simultaneously striking the bottom of the jade bottle. In a clap of thunder, the bottle trembled and completely absorbed the lightning.
With a murmur, Han Li pointed at the air. Crackles sounded out as lightning arced from the bottle and formed a flickering ten-meter-tall pole pointing up into the dark sky. Silver lightning split the sky and struck the golden pole before it was dragged into the bottle.
This happened in great succession as more and more silver bolts struck down and was easily collected.
Two hours later, the bottle gathered another dense bolt and began to release the sounds of a rumbling storm.
When he heard this, he inwardly rejoiced. He raised his arm and reached out for the bottle, causing the golden pole to disappear and summoning the jade bottle into his hand.
He then flung his sleeve into the sky and produced another bottle of a similar appearance, repeating the process all over again.
With that done, he began to carefully examine the bottle that he recovered. It rumbled and trembled without end, flashing dazzling silver light from its mouth as if it could rupture at any moment.
Han Li slapped a golden talisman onto it, and the bottle’s activity came to a sudden halt. After properly placing the lid and putting it away, he turned his attention to the sky once more.
Half a day later, Han Li collected his fourth bottle, but the thunderstorm showed no signs of stopping. Rather, the rain only grew heavier.
He pondered to himself before putting away his fourth bottle. He believed he nearly collected enough lightning to create the heavenly flame he needed for the Triflame Fan’s materials.
But his expression stirred solemn and he suddenly turned to a corner of the sky. He faintly saw a flash, followed by the appearance of a white streak.
He knew that with the shining spell formation beneath him and the bolts of lightning wildly dancing above him, his position was extremely noticeable.
The white streak hurriedly shot in Han Li’s direction. It stopped a hundred meters away and the light disappeared to reveal a woman in palace robes.
She had a slender stature and a dainty appearance with a pair of vivid eyes, seeming to be a beauty in the prime of her youth. Her robes were made of some sort of rare material that not only shined with silver light but also glowed dazzlingly.
Han Li swept his spiritual sense past her and discovered that this woman was a mid-Nascent Soul cultivator much like himself.
She looked at him and sweetly smiled. She said with a soft, pleasant voice, “I am North Night Island’s Bai Yaoyi. Are you also here on business with Fellow Daoist Fu?”
Han Li’s heart trembled and he astoundingly asked, “Are you a cultivator from the North Night Palace?”
Bai Yaoyi chuckled, “I am the North Night Palace’s External Affairs Elder. Since we are located in a remote area, I am surprised that you know of it. May I ask for your esteemed name?”
Han Li calmed down and answered, “My surname is Han, a vagrant cultivator from overseas. I have indeed come to meet with Fellow Daoist Fu, though I have long heard of your palace’s resounding reputation.”
Bai Yaoyi stole an interested glance at Han Li and asked, “Oh, does Fellow Daoist Han know or have a relationship with any of the three great overseas Immortals?”
“I’ve never met them as I’m not someone who often deal with others. I normally cultivate in seclusion on my island.”
“So it was like that, I’ve been presumptuous. Does Fellow Daoist Han need any assistance in collecting lightning?”
“Many thanks for the offer, but I am about done. This will be the last bottle.”
When Bai Yaoyi heard him, she flew a circle in the air and landed on another rock. “Ah, then I will go ahead and rest as we wait.”
She raised her hand and summoned an umbrella magic tool up into the sky. It swirled in the air before releasing a cloud of white light down below, blocking any rain from approaching her. Then, she calmly sat down and summoned a palm-sized object into her hand in a flash of cold light.
Han Li narrowed his eyes and immediately glanced at the item. It was as white as fresh snow and shined with sparkling glamour.
‘Ice Jade!’ He immediately recognized: the same myriad year ice jade from the bottle the Glacial Quintessence he acquired!
Using the plate of ice jade in her hands, she closed her eyes and sank deep into meditation.
It appeared that the woman’s cultivation art wasn’t purely an ice attribute, but rather that of glacial Yin, else she wouldn’t have needed to draw on the support of the jade’s glacial power. This would produce a somewhat similar result to Han Li’s Snow Soul Pills, but it couldn’t possibly compare to the effectiveness, no matter the quality of the jade.
Though Han Li’s expression remained calm, he unconsciously grew wary of the woman.
Given how the North Night Palace would rather fight to the death against high-grade demon beasts every several generations than hand over some of their Glacial Quintessence, it was clear to see how much they valued it. If he allowed this woman to know he had her sect’s signature treasure on hand, it would certainly be troublesome.
Not long after, he put away his fifth bottle full of lightning and slowly floated to the center of the spirit gathering spell formation. Then after striking it with several spell seals, it formed an azure barrier around him, blocking the storm from disturbing him.
Then, he took a seat with his eyes closed. Of course, he couldn’t refine any of the Triflame Fan’s materials in this woman’s presence.
Soon, only the sounds of thunder and wind could be heard.
After an entire day, the rain finally began to slowly go away and the scorching sun appeared in the sky. The weather immediately became hot and humid as miasma slowly restored it domain, enveloping the entire range once more. In addition, the many insects that had taken refuge had again emerged from the ground.
With great calm, Han Li slowly released his spiritual sense to a ten kilometer range. Able to sense everything from the trees to the smallest insect all clearly in his mind, he sank into tranquil meditation.
Whenever low-grade cultivators made their way up the mountain, they would immediately flee with terror after discovering the astonishing cultivation of the two Nascent Soul cultivators.
As for Han Li and the palace-robed woman, they remained seated for three entire days.
On the morning of the fourth day, another high-grade cultivator eventually arrived on the main mountain. This time, it was a man with a towering stature. He had a grotesque appearance and dark, shiny skin. From the result of some unknown technique, he left behind an evil wind in his tracks as he flew here on a large tortoise shell.
When this large man saw them both, he heartily laughed and found another boulder to sit on. However, he had no intention of meditating. Instead, he took out a sparkling golden book and began to read it.
His scholarly actions made for a drastic contrast with his appearance. Although they had turned a blind eye to his actions, Han Li was in truth inwardly frowning.
This towering man was also at mid-Nascent Soul stage. It appeared that Old Man Fu’s objective would be unordinary to gather so many cultivators at their level.
