Chapter 475: Courting Death

A wry smile appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this, yet right as Jin Tong’s teeth were about to come into contact with the purple saber, she suddenly stopped, then raised her head to grin at Han Li as she asked, "Do your promises count?"

Han Li faltered slightly upon hearing this, then nodded in response. "Of course."

A pleased look appeared on Jin Tong's face upon hearing this, and she let go of the purple saber.

Han Li could only give a resigned shake of his head as he stowed the saber away as well, and he was planning to examine the three immortal treasures in closer detail once he left the immortal manor.

All of a sudden, Han Li noticed something else, and he swept a sleeve through the air, upon which a length of silver spirit bamboo that was several dozen feet in length and giving off astonishing spiritual power fluctuations flew toward him.

The silver bamboo had the same aura as the silver bamboo roots that he had dug out of the medicine garden, and beside it were some other precious spirit plants that looked as if they had all been recently picked.

It seemed that the person who had gotten to the medicine garden ahead of him and taken the Profound Heavenly Treasure had been none other than Qu Ling.

In that case, the Profound Heavenly Treasure on that vine had to have been this green gourd.

Close to half a day passed by in the blink of an eye, and all of the items on the ground were finally sorted.

Much to Han Li's elation, Qu Ling was carrying far more treasures than he had anticipated.

Just the Immortal Origin Stones in her possession alone totaled in excess of 100,000, and that was truly an enormous sum comparable to the entire wealth of many large sects.

Aside from that, there were also many precious materials, ingredients, pills, and scriptures, some of which were identified, while others remained a mystery.

However, most of the low-grade spirit treasures in Qu Ling's collection had been devoured by Jin Tong.

At this point, her aura had already swelled to beyond its former peak, while her arms had also fully recovered, and there was a blissful look on her face.

Even now, Jin Tong was still just as greedy an eater as ever. However, this was a unique mode of cultivation, so while it pained Han Li to have to part with all of those spirit treasures, it was a bittersweet feeling, overall. After all, it was definitely a good thing for him to see Jin Tong attain more power.

"Thank you for your hard work, fellow daoists," Han Li said as he turned to Mo Guang and Daoist Xie.

"Our lives are interconnected, so there's no need to thank me. Feel free to call upon me again if you need me, Fellow Daoist Han," Mo Guang said with a smile as it vanished back into Han Li's shadow.

Han Li raised an eyebrow upon seeing this. Mo Guang was behaving very differently from in the past.

As for Daoist Xie, it merely cupped its fist in a salute toward Han Li in silence, then vanished into his body as a streak of golden light.

Shortly thereafter, Han Li emerged from the hall, and after taking a moment to inspect his surroundings, he suddenly looked down at a blue scroll that he was holding.

This was Qu Ling's Infernal Frost Scenic Painting.

However, at this moment, the artwork was completely dull and devoid of luster, looking as if it were nothing more than a normal painting.

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly as he examined the artwork for a moment longer before stowing it away.

"Let's go," he said to Jin Tong, then swept a sleeve through the air to release a burst of golden light that swept up both of them before flying away.

......

Somewhere in the Infernal Frost Immortal Manor.

There were three Southern Dawn beings making their way down a bluestone path that was overgrown with weeds in a set of severely ravaged palatial ruins, and all of them were looking quite weary.

"Wyrm 3 really got us good this time! He convinced us to enter this immortal manor, but we've run into far more peril than treasures! If you ask me, I think he coaxed us into coming in here to act as cannon fodder for him!" a short, dark-skinned woman grumbled in a disgruntled voice.

"I agree. You both saw how fast he ran away as we were exploring that palace earlier! He didn't care at all whether we lived or died, and now, he's completely disappeared," a burly man with a pair of bushy eyebrows chimed in.

"There's no point in saying things like now. Thankfully, the three of us weren't split up. I think we should take this as an opportunity to part ways with Wyrm 3 and search for treasures on our own, then leave the immortal manor once time's up," the final member of the trio, a thin elderly man, said as he stroked his own goatee.

The other two Southern Dawn beings nodded in agreement.

Right as they were conversing with one another, a green jade flying carriage suddenly flew past in the sky, then circled around before drawing to a halt above the three of them.

Standing on the flying carriage was a tall and refined-looking middle-aged man, playing with a white jade Pixiu that was giving off a warm and slightly yellow glow. [1]

Standing behind him were two men clad in suits of golden armor, but their wooden expressions and lifeless auras indicated that they were nothing more than a pair of puppets.

The three Southern Dawn beings took a glance at the man on the flying carriage, and a hint of wariness flashed through their eyes, but they were all feeling a bit more reassured upon sensing the man's late-True Immortal Stage cultivation base.

"Greetings, fellow daoists. Have any of you seen the cultivators of the Northern Glacial Immortal Palace?" the middle-aged man asked with a friendly smile on his face.

None of the Southern Dawn beings immediately replied, but they were feeling a little disgruntled.

While it was true that the middle-aged man was speaking in quite a friendly tone, there was a frustrating aura of superiority and condescension that he was exuding despite his lowly cultivation base.

"No," the thin elderly man replied.

None of the people who had entered the Infernal Frost Immortal Manor would be so foolish as to judge one's power based solely on the cultivation base that they were displaying, so the trio decided to adopt a cautious approach.

Most importantly, they didn't recall seeing this man prior to entering the immortal manor, so he had to have altered his own appearance somehow.

"I'll be on my way then," the middle-aged man said, then flew away atop his flying carriage.

As he flew away into the distance, the burly man turned to the elderly man and asked, "What do we think?"

"I wasn't able to notice anything amiss with my spirit eye ability, so he should be a genuine late-True Immortal cultivator," the elderly man mused as he habitually stroked his own goatee.

"If I'm not mistaken, that flying carriage he's using is quite a fine treasure," the dark-skinned woman suddenly said.

A hint of a smile appeared on the faces of both of the two men upon hearing this.

"Setting aside his storage tools, I want that piece of jade that he was holding," the burly man chuckled.

"I'm taking that robe of his," the thin elderly man declared.

Ultimately, the three of them were unable to suppress their greed, and they were planning to use their numbers advantage to hunt down the middle-aged man and take all of his treasures.

The flying carriage continued to fly through the sky at a leisurely pace several dozen kilometers away, and the smile on the middle-aged man's face remained unchanged as he murmured to himself, "Throwing your lives away over a moment of greed... How unfortunate..."

As soon as his voice trailed off, three streaks of light appeared in front of his flying carriage in a flash.

"Could it be that you've recalled the whereabouts of the Immortal Palace's cultivators, fellow daoists? If you could point me in the right direction, I would be extremely grateful," the middle-aged man said with a smile.

For some reason, a sense of foreboding welled up in the elderly man's heart at the sight of the smile on the middle-aged man's face, and he immediately decided that he would abandon his two companions and run away should things go awry.

Meanwhile, the burly man and the dark-skinned woman exchanged a glance, and the two of them quickly summoned a black stone ax and a silver longsword, respectively.

As for the thin elderly man, he summoned a seven-story golden pagoda that released a golden light barrier, which instantly swelled to countless times its original size to encompass himself, his two companions, and the middle-aged man.

"You think something that can't even count as a pseudo-spirit domain can trap me?"

A cold look suddenly appeared on the middle-aged man's face as he tightened his grip around the jade Pixiu in his hand.

The trio of Southern Dawn beings faltered slightly upon seeing this, yet before they had a chance to do anything, a burst of tremendous power suddenly converged toward them from all directions, instantly destroying the light barrier released by the seven-story golden pagoda.

Immediately thereafter, their bodies were completely pulverized by this burst of power.

Their heads remained completely unscathed, but their bodies had already been crushed into mangled masses of flesh, blood, and bones.

All of this had taken place in the blink of an eye!

Three streaks of golden light shot up into the sky as the nascent souls of the three Southern Dawn beings fled in different directions in a blind panic.

The middle-aged man made a casual grabbing motion upon seeing this, and an enormous semi-transparent hand appeared out of thin air, causing the entire space around it to crease and fold as it grabbed onto the trio of nascent souls.

"Please spare us, Senior! It's not worth dirtying your hands putting an end to our pathetic lives!" the nascent soul of the elderly man pleaded.

The middle-aged man ignored their desperate pleas as he cast his gaze toward the trio of nascent souls with a peculiar gleam in his eyes.

After a brief moment of observation, he crushed the three nascent souls into nothingness as he mused to himself, "It looks like they weren't lying, they really don't know where the Immortal Palace cultivators are. Having said that, there's a bit of a pleasant surprise here."

He reached out to make a beckoning motion as he spoke, and three streaks of azure light flew out of the remains of the three Southern Dawn beings. The streaks of light contained their masks, one of a deer, one of a crow, and another of an ape.

The three masks flew into his hand, and he examined them briefly before sweeping a sleeve through the air, upon which a giant wooden shelf that was laden with all types of Transient Guild masks appeared.

If one were to conduct a count, they would discover that there were over 1,000 of these masks in his collection.

1. Pixius are creatures in Chinese mythology that are said to be symbols for wealth, good fortune, and protection. ?