Chapter 131: Crystallization of the Spirit Liquid

Han Li watched the peculiar changes taking place in the avatar across from him, and a hint of surprise appeared on his face.

Immediately thereafter, his attention turned to the small vial, which was hovering high up in the air, and he noticed that a drop of shimmering green spirit liquid was slowly flowing out from within.

As soon as the drop of spirit liquid dropped out of the vial, it was suspended in mid-air by a burst of inexplicable force, preventing it from falling any further.

Moments later, silver light suddenly flashed from the surface of the small vial, following which a pair of black lines emerged. The pair of lines then abruptly split open to reveal a pair of round eyes, which were no different in shape from the eyes of a person, but the pupils were a silver color.

As soon as the pair of eyes appeared, they immediately took a glance in Han Li's direction, following which two bursts of silver light were released from within to envelop the drop of spirit liquid.

In the next instant, a mouth suddenly appeared beneath the eyes on the vial as well, and a semi-transparent ball of fire erupted out from within to envelop the drop of spirit liquid as well.

Right at this moment, a burst of dull rumbling akin to a thunderclap rang out, accompanied by a burst of subtle fluctuations that were barely visible to the naked eye.

Han Li quickly inspected his surroundings, following which his pupils immediately contracted slightly.

As it turned out, the sea down below had also been affected by that burst of peculiar fluctuations, and the huge waves that were swept up by the gusts of ferocious wind were all completely pulverized by that burst of fluctuations, stirring up layers upon layers of white foam.

At the same time, fierce winds were howling incessantly, and rays of light that were imbued with the world's origin qi suddenly appeared out of thin air, then began to converge toward Han Li like schools of semi-transparent fish.

In the beginning, there were several hundred of these rays of light, but their numbers rapidly increased to the thousands, then to the tens of thousands as they continued to converge from all directions.

After just mere moments, Han Li found himself unable to discern the individual rays of light anymore as there were simply far too many of them. They were stacking up on top of one another, compressing each other to form a continuous band of light as they surged rapidly toward the drop of spirit liquid suspended in mid-air.

As more and more of the light appeared and they began to travel faster and faster, an enormous vortex formed by the world's origin qi appeared. The vortex was several hundred kilometers in diameter, and it stood above the sea like an enormous spiraling pagoda that connected heaven and earth.

The sky was originally bright and clear, but a massive cloud that extended for hundreds of kilometers quickly took shape, encompassing a vast section of the sea beneath it.

Simultaneously, all of the world's origin qi within a radius of thousands of kilometers became extremely erratic, churning like boiling water as they converged toward the area that Han Li was situated in in a frenzy.

Even the islands situated tens of thousands of kilometers away were affected by these phenomena, and the cultivators on the island were greatly alarmed. Hundreds and thousands of figures flew out of their islands one after another before turning their eyes collectively in the direction that Han Li was situated, and there were several True Immortal cultivators hovering in the air in front of the azure light screen several hundred kilometers away from Han Li.

All of the True Immortals seemed to have been familiar with one another, and they were all exchanging glances with apprehension and befuddlement in their eyes.

They had thought that some type of powerful treasure had just emerged, so they had rushed here from their respective islands in anticipation and excitement, but upon their arrival, they quickly realized that they seemed to have been mistaken.

A handsome young man in a pristine white robe turned to an elderly man beside him as he said, "Fellow Daoist Qin, you've always possessed the most powerful spiritual sense out of all of us, and you were the first one to get here. Do you know exactly what's happened here?"

"This light barrier before us keeps out all spiritual sense, so I'm unable to detect what's happening inside. However, judging from the looks of it, it seems like someone is refining a powerful treasure here," the elderly man replied with a shake of his head.

"Have any of you considered the possibility that it could be someone refining an Earthly Deity Avatar?" a red-robed man with a rather effeminate appearance speculated with narrowed eyes.

"I don't think that's the case. I think Fellow Daoist Qin's theory is more likely."

"I agree."

𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"What's the point in making these empty speculations? Let's just go in and find out what's happening! If we join forces, surely there's nothing for us to fear," a hideous dark-skinned man suggested.

Despite the urgent tone of his voice, he hadn't moved in the slightest.

A cold smile appeared on the elderly man's face upon seeing this, and he said, "A being capable of setting up a spiritual sense obstructing restriction like this is not someone I can afford to mess with. If you want to know what's happening, you can feel free to go in, but I won't be accompanying you."

As soon as his voice trailed off, he immediately sped away as a streak of light.

The remaining few True Immortal exchanged a few glances with one another, and all of them were looking rather awkward. They were all sly old foxes that had lived for countless years, and none of them were willing to take the risk to infiltrate the restriction first.

With the departure of the elderly man, they quickly lost interest in staying any longer, so after exchanging some small talk, they flew back to their respective islands.

Given the situation here, it was most likely the case that no powerful treasure had emerged, and if the elderly man's theory were correct and there really was an extremely powerful senior refining a treasure here, then there was a chance that they would turn on any bystanders in the area once they were done refining their treasure.

As long as they departed of their own accord before that senior completed the refinement of their treasure, there was nothing for them to fear.

Han Li was naturally completely oblivious to what these True Immortals were thinking. In fact, he was far too preoccupied with other matters to even consider such a thing.

Just now, the vast vortex of origin qi had abruptly collapsed inward to form a massive pillar of light that extended straight up into the heavens, and the clouds in the sky were also swirling incessantly around the pillar of light in a frenzy.

Right at this moment, a layer of hazy azure light suddenly appeared around Han Li, and before he had a chance to figure out what was happening, the immortal spiritual power in his body began to spill out like a turbulent wave under a burst of immense suction force, then surged directly toward the drop of spirit liquid that was enveloped in silver light.

This was naturally a very alarming turn of events, and Han Li immediately raised a hand to make a series of hand seals, causing the azure light around him to tremble slightly while the leakage of immortal spiritual power from his body was slowed.

At the same time, a layer of azure light also appeared around the Earthly Deity Avatar, and the magic power in its body that was converted from the power of faith was almost completely sapped away in the span of just a few seconds.

With a wave of his hand, Han Li stowed the avatar away, but that wasn't the end of his troubles.

Even though he was doing everything in his power to hold back his immortal spiritual power, it was still constantly flowing out of his body, except at a far slower rate than before.

After a brief moment of contemplation, he flipped a hand over to produce several pills, all of which he devoured at once.

As the spiritual power within the pills was converted into immortal spiritual power in his body, the sense of emptiness in Han Li's dantian finally abated slightly.

He raised his head to look up at the drop of dark green spirit liquid in the air, and a complex look appeared in his eyes.

Five whole days passed by, but the phenomenon taking place around Han Li hadn't changed in the slightest. Situated right in the eye of the storm, Han Li was struggling immensely.

If someone familiar with him were to see the state that he was currently in, they would've most likely been given a massive fright.

At this moment, Han Li had a pair of sunken eyes, skin with a waxy yellow complexion, and there was even a layer of dry dead skin on his lips. It seemed that his essence and energy were both severely depleted, and only his eyes remained as bright as ever.

The reason for this was that the immortal spiritual power in his body had been constantly seeping out over the course of the past few days, and at this point, the supply was already completely exhausted, along with a large chunk of the stash of high-grade pills that he had accumulated.

At this point, he discovered that taking further pills only had an infinitesimal effect on his immortal spiritual power recovery, and he wasn't going to be able to last much longer at this rate.

However, for some reason, there was a voice in his heart telling him that as long as he persevered, he was going to reap a tremendous reward in the end.

Han Li took a deep breath as he stowed away the several pills that he had summoned back into his storage treasure. He then gritted his teeth and made a strange hand seal, and his dried and cracked lips parted slightly as he began to chant an incantation.

As he did this, the complexion of his skin suddenly began to improve, and his sunken eyes also returned to normal.

He resembled an old tree that was on the brink of death abruptly being rejuvenated by a bout of heavy rainfall.

Unfortunately, this was a secret technique that allowed one to regain their vitality and increase the amount of immortal spiritual power in their body, but at the cost of burning through blood essence, and the price that he was incurring for using this secret technique was far beyond what the average person could imagine.

……

Another three days and three nights passed by in the blink of an eye.

All of a sudden, the azure ball of light that encompassed a vast area around Han Li began to rapidly shrink without any warning. After no more than 20 seconds, it had already shrunk down to a radius of only around 10 feet, and that drop of spirit liquid, which had already turned virtually completely translucent, was enveloped within it.

Within this small area, a vast volume of extremely dense world's origin qi was still surging toward the drop of spirit liquid at a rate that was discernible even to the naked eye.

All of a sudden, a resounding boom rang out, and the azure light barrier shrank once again. As it did so, even more world's origin qi was compressed to the extreme and forced into the drop of spirit liquid.

The drop of spirit liquid that was hovering in mid-air instantly solidified, transforming into a semi-transparent crystal that fell out of the air.

At the same time, a dry and withered hand suddenly shot out to catch the crystal.

The owner of the hand was naturally none other than Han Li, and following the ordeal that he had just endured, he had become unrecognizably emaciated, looking like nothing more than a sack of skin and bones. His robes were draping down all around his body, making him resemble a clothes rack that the azure robe was hanging from.

Even though he was in terrible shape, there was a smile on his face, and there was a look of utter exhaustion in his eyes, but they were still shining as bright as ever.

He raised his head to look up at the small vial, which was still hovering in mid-air, only to find that its original dark green color had faded, and the mouth and that pair of eyes had also vanished. Furthermore, it was looking rather blurry and indistinct, almost impossible to see clearly.

He was rather surprised to see this, but he wasn't concerned as a vague sense of familiarity had surfaced in his mind, and he was confident that the vial would return to normal after absorbing moonlight for a few days.