A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality

Han Li didn't immediately procure those two balls of glacial flames. Instead, he cocked his head to the side and fell into deep thought.

A thought suddenly occurred to him as he turned back to glance at the Unbroken Cinque Devils, then down at the two balls of glacial flames again. All of a sudden, he seemed to have reached some sort of conclusion with his thoughts and abruptly burst into laughter.

His boisterous laughter echoed throughout the entire cave.

Han Li's laughter tapered off as he murmured to himself, "Fantastic! This journey was definitely not a waste of time!"

He waved his hand downward, upon which the two balls of glacial flames were drawn toward him by an invisible force.

Han Li unleashed countless thin goldens arcs of light amid the sound of rumbling thunderclaps, encapsulating those two balls of glacial flames in golden balls of thread as well before stowing them away into Profound Jade boxes.

After doing all that, Han Li released that black jade vial from his sleeve and uttered a chant to get the Unbroken Cinque Devils sealed back into the vial.

The five devils seemed to be aware of Han Li's intentions and they were trying to stall for time, clearly unwilling to return to the vial.

Han Li's expression darkened as he let loose a stern cry. He pointed a finger toward the five devils and the silver rings on their bodies immediately shuddered as azure spiritual light erupted.

The five devils had been afflicted by the might of those rings more than once and they immediately followed Han Li's command, emitting a ghostly cry as they transformed into five bursts of grey-white Qi before entering the vial.

Only then did Han Li carefully stow the vial back into his sleeve.

As for the humanoid puppet off to the side, Han Li didn't appear to have any intention of stowing it away. Instead, he pulled out a green high-grade spirit stone and slapped it onto the puppet, replacing the other spirit stone that was about to be exhausted of energy.

As long as the puppet wasn't fighting at full power, its draining effect on spirit stones was completely negligible.

His body flashed through the air and he descended gently, landing in front of a large rock amid a pile of rubble. There were some relatively large fragments of Myriad Year Glacial Jade embedded into the rock and they were shimmering with a faint white light.

Han Li raised an eyebrow as he patted his storage pouch, upon which a thin and long beaker appeared in his hand.

He tapped the beaker and the lid flew off by itself. The beaker then tilted slightly and a large clump of pitch-black liquid spilled out from within, emanating bursts of grey Qi. It was completely identical to the Yin Spirit Water used by Bai Mengxin to extract the Myriad Year Glacial Jade.

This liquid was some "dark water" that Han Li had procured after unintentionally stumbling into the Umbra Realm. He had thought that this dark water appeared to be quite interesting at the time, so he brought back quite a lot with him using several containers. 

During his free time thereafter, he had conducted some research on this liquid. However, he discovered that aside from the fact that they were quite viscous and cold, and cold temporarily imbue a treasure with Yin flames, he didn't discover any other use for them. As such, they had been stored in his storage pouch this entire time.

Only after entering the Profound Jade Cave and witnessing Bai Mengxin extract the Myriad Year Glacial Jade did he realize that her so-called Yin Spirit Water was completely identical to this dark water.

In the presence of Master Arctic Dragon and the others, he didn't take the risk to use his spiritual sense to assess whether those two were indeed one and the same. However, he was adamant that they were the exact same thing.

As for the name "dark water", that was simply a name that the cultivator in the Umbra Realm had given to the liquid. 

Now that he was the only person left in the Profound Glacial Cave, he was naturally going to test out his theory.

Han Li pointed at the clump of black liquid and the liquid slowly flew into the air above the rock. It then shuddered slightly before a drop detached from its overall mass, disappearing into the white light below in the blink of an eye.

Sure enough, this situation was completely identical to the situation encountered by Bai Mengxin when procuring the jade. The black liquid disappeared into the Profound Jade in a flash and at the same time, a layer of grey Qi emerged.

Han Li was very pleased to see this as he flicked a finger toward the Profound Jade. All of a sudden, a small bead of azure light shot forth and struck the Profound Jade.

A faint thud was heard and the Profound Jade wobbled slightly before detaching itself from the rock, and was sucked into his hand.

He examined the Profound Jade in his hand with an intense gaze before looking around at all of the spots of white light shimmering within the cave. A faint smile gradually surfaced on his face.

With the amount of "dark water" he was carrying with him, it would naturally be impossible to extract all of the Profound Jade in the cave. However, it was definitely not a problem to extract the majority of the Profound Jade revealed on the surface of the cave.

With that in mind, Han Li immediately patted his storage pouch to produce another beaker, which he passed to the humanoid puppet beside him.

The puppet accepted the container soundlessly and its body flashed through the air several times, taking it to another location in the cave. It summoned the dark water from within the beaker while holding a storage pouch in its other hand as it began to extract Profound Jade.

Meanwhile, Han Li was doing the same thing.

Time slowly passed by and several hours later, the Profound Jade's glacial Qi in the cave had gradually become a lot thinner. Furthermore, the spots of white light that had riddled the entire cave had also dwindled significantly with less than a third of the original amount remaining.

After Han Li applied his final drop of dark water onto a fragment of Profound Jade and stowed the latter away in his storage pouch, he let loose a faint sight as he looked around with a forlorn expression.

If he had known that this dark water would have such an amazing effect, he would have definitely carried more out of the Umbra Realm with him.

Even so, the amount of Myriad Year Profound Jade that he had procured was already quite jaw-dropping. Just the Myriad Year Profound Jade fragments procured by him alone numbered in excess of 1,000. It was a pity that some of the large pieces of Profound Jade required more than one drop of Yin Spirit Water to be applied for extraction. Otherwise, he would have been able to procure even more than what he currently had.

Just as he was thinking this to himself, the humanoid puppet suddenly flashed through the air and traveled toward him. It then raised a hand and tossed its bulging storage pouch at him.

Han Li caught the pouch and used his spiritual sense to take a cursory glance at its contents.

Sure enough, there appeared to also be over 1,000 pieces of Profound Jade in there.

With so many pieces of Profound Jade in his possession, Han Li was already beginning to devise a plan. Aside from adding them to his 72 flying swords, he could use them to refine some treasures or perhaps add them into his existing treasures to enhance their powers.

However, even if Han Li were to do all that, there was no way he would be able to use up all of this Profound Jade. The majority of the Profound Jade would still remain and he was going to use its glacial Qi to refine and purify his own glacial flames.

After all, with the assistance of the Profound Jade's glacial Qi, refining his glacial flames should become a lot easier.

Han Li didn't think too deep into this matter. The train of thought only briefly surfaced in his mind before it was abandoned.

He put away the storage pouch before turning toward the Fire Raven formed from the Greatyin True Flame.

The Fire Raven had already swelled to become five to six times larger than its original size, making it roughly comparable in size to a human head. In contrast, the Qilin silhouette was completely unrecognizable, having been reduced to a thin layer of white that enveloped the Fire Raven. The Profound Jade badge had also ended up caught between the Fire Raven's beak and the latter was using the former as a toy.

Han Li faltered upon seeing this before hurriedly waving his hand through the air with a bemused expression.

The Profound Jade badge immediately extricated itself from between the Fire Raven's beak and landed in his hand.

Without the support of the Profound Jade bade, the remaining white Qi instantly dispersed and was about to vanish.

The Fire Raven immediately let loose a low cry upon seeing this. It spread open its wings and its entire body transformed into a ball of crimson flames, which swept toward the remaining white Qi, absorbing all of it into its own body.

After doing all that, the flames reverted back to their Fire Raven form and landed on Han Li's shoulder after circling the air with excitement. It then cocked its head to the size and used its beak to organize its fiery feathers, which had become even more exuberant in color.

Han Li turned to appraise the Fire Raven and a hint of surprise appeared on his face.

The Greatyin True Flame's spiritual nature had been enhanced significantly.

He looked down at the Profound Jade badge in his hand and a thought seemed to have occurred to him as he feigned a grabbing motion with his other hand. All of a sudden, a wisp of Profound Jade's glacial Qi appeared in his hand, and the former was enveloped in a ball of Purple Apex Flames.

A blue light flashed through Han Li's eyes and he could clearly see that the glacial Qi within the purple flames was no longer in its wispy substantial stage. Instead, it had become extremely thin and insubstantial, no different from normal glacial Qi.

A sense of enlightenment welled up in Han Li's heart as he examined the Profound Jade badge again. He then clicked his tongue with wonder before stowing the treasure into his storage pouch.

After searching through the entire Profound Jade Cave and ascertaining that there was nothing else of value to be contained, he departed with the humanoid puppet and the Fire Raven.

The entrance to the cave was still tightly sealed.

Han Li looked at the mysterious runes flashing at the opening and summoned the Celestial Blue Cauldron from his sleeve. The cauldron shot forth through the air and rotated a few times before hovering in front of him, completely stationary.

If it were any other cultivator, they really would be unable to manipulate this cauldron. After all, it was quite clear that only those who had Celestial Ice Flames could control the Celestial Blue Cauldron. That was why Master Arctic Dragon had willingly given one to the monk.

However, this was not an issue for Han Li. He took an indifferent glance at the cauldron before making a hand seal, upon which the Purple Apex Flames around his body shuddered and began to change drastically in color.

In the blink of an eye, the layer of purple flames over his body had turned blue, transforming into Celestial Blue Flames.

Blue light was shimmering over his hand as he pointed at the small cauldron in front of him. A wisp of blue flames flew forth like a spirit snake and struck the cauldron with unerring accuracy.

The Celestial Blue Cauldron immediately tremored as it began to emit a ringing sound. Countless bursts of blue flames erupted from within as the cauldron began to swell drastically in size amid the blue light.

Han Li made a hand seal to urge the cauldron into growth, only stopping when it had expanded to around 30 to 40 feet in size. Han Li then made another hand seal as a low cry escaped from his mouth.

The massive cauldron immediately flew through the air, appearing as if it were going to crash through the opening of the cave.

However, Han Li's expression remained completely unchanged. 

As expected, when the cauldron had reached around 30 to 40 feet away from the opening, the mysterious runes there flashed in unison as spiritual light of all types of colors radiated through the air. Those runes seemed to have been drawn to the massive cauldron as they transformed into countless streaks of light before disappearing into the blue flames around the cauldron.

A loud rumbling erupted as a rift several tens of feet in length slowly appeared in the opening.