Chapter 581: Gathering of Immortals

Around an hour ago, right when Han Li achieved full mastery of the fourth level of the Spirit Refinement Technique.

Countless kilometers away from the ravine that Han Li was in, there stood a white mountain that reached all the way up into the clouds.

On the mountain summit was an azure platform that had been constructed out of stone blocks, and at the center of the platform was a square stone table, around which were placed four stone chairs of the same style, but in different colors.

At this moment, three of the stone chairs were occupied.

One of them was occupied by a black-robed young man with a dark complexion. He had a pair of silver horns on his head, and there was a very cold and inhospitable air about him.

The second chair was occupied by a white-robed man who appeared to be 30 to 40 years of age. He was extremely handsome, with a head of flowing white hair, down the middle of which was a lock of eye-catching golden hair.

The final person to complete the trio was a hunch-backed elderly man with red hair and a red beard, holding a crimson cane in one hand.

Hovering above the stone table in front of the trio was a white mirror of water, within which was a swirling expanse of white light.

A dark ravine could just barely be made out beneath the white light, and there were wisps of black qi drifting out of the ravine.

"Those are some very powerful spiritual sense fluctuations... Could it be that someone on Old Man Gu's territory made a breakthrough to the Great Encompassment Stage?" the black-robed young man mused.

"A breakthrough to the Great Encompassment Stage would've triggered far more significant phenomena. If you ask me, this looks like something that would arise from someone cultivating some type of spiritual secret technique," the white-robed man said.

The black-robed man's brows furrowed slightly as he took a glance at the white-robed, then gave a cold harrumph.

The white-robed man paid no heed to him as he turned to the red-haired elderly man and asked, "What do you think, Brother Yu?"

"I'm not too sure what to make of this, but seeing as this is happening on Fellow Daoist Gu's territory, we're in no position to intervene," the red-haired man replied in an ambiguous fashion.

"Today is our once-in-a-million-year gathering, yet Fellow Daoist Gu has already been absent several times in succession, and now, something strange seems to be happening on his territory. I really do wonder what he's up to," the white-robed man sighed as he shook his head with a resigned smile.

"Don't mind him, Fellow Daoist Gu has always been a very mysterious man," the red-haired elderly man chuckled.

"Maybe you should mind your own business instead of prying into Old Man Gu's matters, Brother Liu. Recently, one of your subsidiary branches in the Dark Star Mountain Range suddenly attacked and took over the entire Insect Race territory in that area. How do you explain that, Brother Liu?" the black-robed young man asked.

"So that's what's on your mind! I was wondering why you were being so hostile to me. Both of us have countless descendants spread across the vast primordial land, and they've always lived and died by the laws of natural selection, so why concern yourself with these matters? If you're truly bothered by this, then just send some of your people to recover the territory," the white-robed man replied with a nonchalant smile.

"In that case, I don't believe there's any need for this gathering to drag on any longer. I'll be going ahead now," the black-robed man declared as he suddenly rose to his feet, then abruptly vanished into thin air.

"Looks like Brother Zuo's temper is still as fiery as ever. Brother Liu, I'll also be taking my leave now. See you in a million years," the red-haired elderly man said as he also rose to his feet, then waved his cane through the air, and a white spatial rift appeared in front of him, then slowly widened to form a spatial passageway.

After that, the red-haired elderly man calmly stepped into the spatial passageway and departed as well.

Meanwhile, a faint smile appeared on the white-robed man's face as he mused, "That human brat is quite brave. He's neither advancing or retreating, instead choosing to remain where he is to cultivate. Let's see if he has what it takes to dig himself out of this hole."

As soon as his voice trailed off, the white mirror hovering above the platform abruptly vanished, and the white-robed man was also nowhere to be seen.

......

It took Han Li around half a month to fully comprehend the fifth level of the Spirit Refinement Technique.

His spiritual sense was far superior to that of the average Golden Immortal to begin with, and now that he had mastered the fourth level of the Spirit Refinement Technique, he naturally fulfilled the spiritual sense prerequisites to cultivate the fifth level of the Spirit Refinement Technique.

However, the fifth level of the cultivation art was extremely complex, and it seemed that many risks also had to be taken during its cultivation, and that left him a little hesitant about how to proceed.

However, given the impact that the baleful qi in the ravine had on his spiritual sense, it occurred to Han Li that perhaps he could further enhance his own spiritual sense by descending deeper into the ravine.

With that in mind, he stowed the jade slip away, then rose to his feet and recommenced his descent.

However, it didn't take long before Han Li's brows began to furrow slightly, and as he continued his descent, the concern on his face only grew more pronounced.

Contrary to his expectations, the yin winds deeper in the ravine had only become weaker instead of stronger.

Even though the baleful qi was only becoming denser the deeper he went, without those yin winds to complement it, the baleful qi alone wasn't sufficient to conjure up those illusions in his mind.

𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

A disappointed look appeared on Han Li's face, and after a brief pause, he returned to the depth where the yin wind was strongest before sitting down with his legs crossed to try and cultivate the fifth level of the Spirit Refinement Technique.

Half a year flew by in a flash.

As Han Li opened his eyes, a rather frustrated look appeared on his face.

During the past six months, he had been cultivating constantly without rest, but progress had been extremely slow. Not only was progress far slower than when he was able to take advantage of those baleful qi illusions to cultivate the Spirit Refinement Technique, it was significantly slower than even under normal circumstances.

Han Li took a deep breath to compose himself.

Back when he was cultivating the third level of the Spirit Refinement Technique, he had encountered the same problem, but eventually, he was able to master the third level with enough time. However, in this situation, he simply didn't have time to make slow and steady progress.

After some contemplation, he made a hand seal, and his body shuddered slightly, following which all of the surrounding baleful qi abruptly converged toward him, inundating him in the blink of an eye.

All of a sudden, he felt as if he could hear the blood-hurdling howls of countless demon beasts ringing out beside his ears, and at the same time, bursts of sinister and violent intent began infiltrating all parts of his body.

He took a deep breath and didn't channel any of his cultivation arts to defend himself.

Bursts of dense baleful qi surged erratically throughout his body, and it felt as if there were countless tiny daggers twisting in his meridians.

His brows furrowed slightly, but then quickly unfurrowed again, and he promptly devoured a cultivation enhancement pill before channeling his Profound Baleful Spirit Arts.

All of the baleful qi that had accumulated in his body instantly erupted forth, manifesting itself as a vast expanse of black light that resembled a cloud of dense mist.

The black light instantly fused as one with the surrounding baleful qi, stirring up the nearby baleful qi into a frenzy, causing them to form a series of vortexes around him before surging into his body at an even faster rate than before.

All of a sudden, Han Li was completely inundated by a dense black cloud, and he felt as if there were countless needles piercing into his skin.

As he continued to channel the Profound Baleful Spirit Arts, the bursts of erratic baleful qi in his body began to converge toward a single point, forming a vast wave of baleful qi.

He couldn't help but give a muffled groan, and his brows became tightly furrowed with agony.

Earlier, the bursts of baleful qi had been spread out all over his body, and they had caused him some pain, but it wasn't all that severe. However, now that all of the baleful qi had converged to one place, the pain was far more unbearable than before.

Thankfully, there didn't seem to be any other detrimental effects aside from the excruciating pain for now, and Han Li was able to grit his teeth and persevere as he directed the baleful qi toward his 62nd immortal acupoint.

He was well aware of the fact that because this was extraneous baleful qi that he hadn't accumulated in his body, he would instinctively reject it. On top of that, this extraneous baleful qi was only going to be even more ferocious and untamed than the baleful qi that was already in his body.

Similarly, the sinister and violent intent imbued in this baleful qi was only going to be even more ferocious, and if he wasn't careful, it could easily overwhelm his immortal acupoints and completely destroy his consciousness.

However, time was of the essence here, and extreme measures had to be taken, so despite the severe degree of risk involved, he was still planning to use this extraneous baleful qi to help him open up his immortal acupoints.

"It's... still... not enough..." Han Li spat through gritted teeth with tightly furrowed brows.

He made a rapid string of hand seals, and the black light around him brightened significantly, while the rate of influx of baleful qi sped up by twofold, but at the same time, the pain also became twice as unbearable.

Han Li forcibly suppressed the excruciating pain as he continued to absorb more baleful qi into his own body before channeling it toward his immortal acupoint.

The baleful qi within the ravine began to churn violently, causing the demon beast carcasses on the cliff faces on either side of the ravine to tumble down before shattering into powdered bone and specks of fluorescent flames in mid-air.

As time slowly passed, the baleful qi in the surrounding area began to thin out, while the baleful qi directly around Han Li became denser and denser.

Over three months passed by in a flash.

On this day, a resounding boom suddenly rang out within the ravine.

Deep within the ravine, Han Li was hovering in mid-air, and a small vortex was taking shape on his back beneath his shoulder blades. The vortex was voraciously absorbing the world's origin qi that was surging down from above the ravine, and only after close to 20 seconds had passed did the influx of the world's origin qi slowly subside.

At this point, the vortex had been replaced by a speck of golden light, and it was none other than Han Li's 62nd immortal acupoint!

Han Li took a moment to inspect the immortal acupoint, and he discovered that aside from the vast amount of immortal spiritual power within it, there was a large quantity of baleful qi as well, far more than what was present in his previous immortal acupoints.

It was clear that opening acupoints using extraneous baleful qi was different from doing so using one's innate baleful qi.