Chapter 309: Progressing to the Late-True Immortal Stage

With that in mind, Han Li swept a hand through the air, and the remaining lengths of Lightning Restraining Wood in his possession appeared on the ground before him, along with some other lightning-attribute spirit materials.

Around a month later.

Han Li was seated in the main hall in the courtyard outside the cave abode, sipping on a cup of spirit tea with a contemplative look in his eyes.

Moments later, Meng Qianqian made her way into the room.

"Elder Li."

"Qianqian, I called you here because I have something important I need you to do for me," Han Li said as he set down his teacup with a serious expression.

Meng Qianqian faltered slightly upon hearing this, then puffed out her chest as she replied, "Please go ahead, Elder Li."

"Don't be so tense, it's not that serious," Han Li said with a smile, then pulled out a storage tool that he handed to Meng Qianqian.

Meng Qianqian accepted the storage tool before injecting her spiritual sense into it, following which she looked up at Han Li with a hint of befuddlement in her eyes.

Han Li said something to her through voice transmission, and a grim look appeared on her face.

"Is that too difficult a task?" Han Li asked.

"Rest assured, Elder Li, I'll get it done even if it costs me my life!" Meng Qianqian assured with a serious expression.

"Good, but do be careful, and don't let anyone else know about this," Han Li instructed.

"Yes, Elder Li," Meng Qianqian replied with a respectful curtsey, then departed from the room, flying away as a streak of crimson light.

Han Li stood at the entrance of his cave abode, watching as the streak of crimson light vanished into the distance before also flying away himself as a streak of azure light.

Only after two months did he return to the Crimson Dawn Peak, and during this time, he had sold most of the materials, spirit medicines, and treasures that he had obtained from the Holy Puppet Sect in batches for Immortal Origin Stones.

He had also purchased a large supply of ingredients required for the pills that he was going to refine, and having completed all of these preparations, he returned to his cave abode, then activated all of the restrictions before making his way into the secret chamber.

On the way there, a thought suddenly occurred to him, and he made his way to his medicine garden instead, specifically to the corner where the primary bean had been planted.

To his surprise, he discovered that the seedling that had sprouted out of the primary bean had become several inches taller than before.

It had taken the primary a very long time to germinate, but ever since then, its rate of growth had become a lot faster.

As the seedling developed, the golden patterns on it had become a lot darker, but as for whether this supposed mutation was positive or negative, that was still yet to be seen.

In any case, after witnessing the Dao Warriors in action back at the Holy Puppet Sect, he was very much looking forward to acquiring his own Dao Warriors.

With that in mind, Han Li pulled out his Heaven Controlling Vial before handing it to the nearby giant ape puppet, then made his way back to his secret chamber.

Up to this point, all of the errands had been taken care of, and he exhaled as he flipped a hand over to produce a silver pill cauldron, which he set down at the center of the secret chamber.

After that, he summoned the Essence Fire Raven with a sweep of his sleeve, which descended near the cauldron as a fiery silver figure.

After devouring and absorbing the black crane's nascent soul, the Essence Fire Raven's aura had clearly become more powerful than before, and its facial features had also become a bit more exuberant and expressive.

It seemed to have been aware of why it had been summoned, and after quickly flying in a circle around the cauldron, its round cheeks bulged, following which it blasted a large plume of silver flames out of its mouth to envelop the underside of the cauldron.

Meanwhile, Han Li had already prepared all of the pill refinement ingredients that he had purchased into batches, and he sat down with his legs crossed.

……

Several years later.

The silver flames beneath the cauldron subsided, and the fiery silver figure jumped onto Han Li's shoulder, where it sat down in an obedient manner.

There was a rather weary look on Han Li's face as he cast an incantation seal through the air, and a faint pop rang out as the lid of the silver cauldron flew up, following which a rich medicinal aroma instantly filled the entire secret chamber.

After taking a whiff of the aroma, a pleased look appeared on Han Li's face, and he made a grabbing motion to draw around a dozen longan-sized white pills out of the cauldron. All of the pills were emanating faint wisps of white mist, giving them quite a profound and remarkable appearance.

The white pills fell into a white jade vial that had been prepared earlier, and at this point, there were already over 100 of these vials placed beside Han Li.

"That should be about enough," Han Li murmured to himself, then swept a sleeve through the air to stow the silver cauldron and the Essence Fire Raven away before closing his eyes to meditate.

He was going to prime himself into the best possible condition before going into seclusion.

Over 200 years flew by in the blink of an eye, and the Crimson Dawn Peak had been closed to the outside this entire time.

During this time, the Blaze Dragon Dao welcomed its largest bout of snowfall in the past 500 years, lasting several months.

Not only were all of the northern branches of the entire Bell Toll Mountain Range covered in a blanket of snow, the same applied to the majority of the mountain range's southern branches as well, and that included the Crimson Dawn Peak.

On this day, the snowfall finally subsided to reveal clear, blue skies, and Han Li's servants began to clear away the snow around the cave abode, led by Meng Xiong.

There were very few people on the Crimson Dawn Peak to begin with, and Meng Yungui and the others were yet to return from their outings. In particular, in the absence of Meng Qianqian, it was very quiet, and even the calls of the birds were particularly clear and audible.

After all of the snow in front of the entrance of the cave abode had been cleared away, everyone went to the spirit medicine fields, which were protected by restrictions and arrays, but the snow there still had to be cleared away. Otherwise, the melting snow would result in excessive water that would drown the plants.

All of a sudden, the entire Crimson Dawn Peak abruptly shuddered, and an enormous pillar of golden light erupted straight into the heavens from the cave abode. All of the world's origin qi in a radius of thousands of kilometers rippled violently, forming an enormous cloud that revolveD around the Crimson Dawn Peak.

Spiritual light of all types of different colors shone down upon the Crimson Dawn Peak, and the phenomenon only subsided after a long time had passed.

Everyone had stopped what they were doing to observe the phenomenon, and Meng Xiong hurriedly urged, "Alright, let's all get back to work. The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can go back to cultivate. Elder Li has provided us with an exceptional cultivation environment, so let's not squander it."

Everyone immediately returned to work upon hearing this.

They were already accustomed to all of the phenomena taking place on the mountain, and they knew that all of them resulted from Han Li's cultivation, but they still couldn't help but want to stop and watch whenever these phenomena took place.

After all, these phenomena were being triggered by the cultivation of a True Immortal!

Inside the secret chamber of his cave abode, Han Li's entire body was basked in golden light, and there were 24 specks of golden light on his chest and abdomen that were glowing as radiantly as stars in the night sky.

An enormous aura was emanating from his body, and it was as if he had been reborn anew.

He had progressed to the late-True Immortal Stage.

During the past two centuries, he had constantly been consuming earthly pills to enhance his own cultivation, and he had finally managed to open those four remaining immortal acupoints.

This rate of cultivation was naturally far faster than that of the average cultivator, but it was still significantly slower than before.

It had only taken him around a century to open up the previous immortal acupoints, yet it had taken far longer than that just open up these final three acupoints.

As the golden light gradually fused into Han Li's body, the phenomenon taking place within the secret chamber also subsided.

Han Li exhaled as he turned and cast his gaze toward the Mantra Treasured Axis hovering in mid-air behind him.

The Eye of Truth was shut, and at this point, all of the Time Dao Runes on the axis had already fully recovered.

However, there was a hint of disappointment in Han Li's eyes.

Even after his progression to the late-True Immortal Stage, the number of Time Dao Runes on the Mantra Treasured Axis still remained stagnant at 108.

This was clearly not just a matter of bad luck. According to the Mantra Axis Scripture, opening up the final four immortal acupoints should've earned him two more Time Dao Runes.

It was most likely the case that he had manifested too many Time Dao Runes by using the Eye of Truth to absorb the crystals created by the Heaven Controlling Vial, and the Mantra Treasured Axis had already reached its tolerance threshold.

Having said that, Han Li was already prepared for this outcome, so he wasn't overly disappointed.

A faint smile appeared on his face as he sensed the vast immortal spiritual power in his body, and instead of immediately rising to his feet, he continued to remain seated on the ground.

This breakthrough was naturally fantastic news, but there were more important things that he had to attend to right now.

He flipped a hand over to produce the eye of the Primordial Fei Beast, and at the same time, the sound of heavy footsteps rang out from outside as the giant ape puppet strode into the room.

It set down the Heaven Controlling Vial beside him, and there was already a drop of green spirit liquid inside it.

Han Li took a deep breath as he picked up the Heaven Controlling Vial, then consumed the drop of spirit liquid inside without any hesitation.

Once again, he was attempting to glean the laws of time.

His immortal spiritual power began to circulate in his body, while the Mantra Treasured Axis behind him lit up with dazzling golden radiance, and the 108 Time Dao Runes on its surface were also flashing incessantly.

A vast expanse of golden ripples appeared around him to envelop the entire secret chamber, and a burst of indescribably formidable energy fluctuations erupted in all directions.

To Han Li, it felt as if even the flow of air in the surrounding area had slowed down, and he was able to hear everything with exceptional clarity.

It seemed that everything around him had fallen into some type of profound tempo, and as time slowly passed, the golden light radiating from Han Li's body continued to flash, causing the level of brightness in the secret chamber to fluctuate incessantly.

At this point, his body was already drenched in blood, but he paid no heed to that at all, as if it weren't even happening to him.