Chapter 591: Swords in the Gourd

Han Li took a deep breath before closing his eyes, then injected his spiritual sense into the glowing green gourd, arriving in the green space within.

The green space didn't appear to be any different from before. It was still filled with countless wisps of green light, which were slowly revolving to form a green vortex.

However, these wisps of green light were clearly a bit brighter than before, and they were also giving off a very peculiar aura. This was most likely the result of the nourishing effect of the Heaven Controlling Vial's spirit liquid.

Hovering at the center of the green vortex were several Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords, as well as that miniature pagoda immortal treasure that he had obtained from the Infernal Frost Immortal Manor.

After so many years of refinement, the spiritual power of the Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords had become completely self-contained, and they were giving off faint azure spiritual light, seemingly no different in appearance from normal spirit treasures.

As for the Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Sword that had been placed into the gourd first, its spiritual power had become restrained to the extreme, to the point that it wasn't even glowing with spiritual light anymore, making it resemble an ordinary mortal sword.

However, through his spiritual connection with the sword, Han Li could sense that it contained tremendous spiritual power that could be unleashed at any moment at his behest.

After withdrawing his spiritual sense from the gourd, Han Li opened his eyes before sweeping a sleeve through the air, and one of the flying swords emerged from the gourd, then landed in his grasp.

After catching the flying sword, Han Li injected some of his immortal spiritual power into it, and an earth-shattering thunderclap instantly rang out as a vast expanse of radiant golden lightning erupted forth.

Countless thin arcs of lightning also sprang out of the sword in all directions, instantly encompassing the entire surrounding area.

These arcs of lightning were extremely bright, and all of the nearby baleful qi instantly surged back in retreat to avoid them.

A pleased look appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this.

Sure enough, following this period of refinement in the Profound Heavenly Gourd, all of the Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords had become significantly more powerful than before.

Immediately thereafter, eight more Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords flew out of the gourd at Han Li's behest, and they rose up into the air along with the one that was already in his hand.

The nine swords circled around in mid-air as thick arcs of golden lightning emerged over them amid rumbling thunderclaps, and the space in the wake of the nine flying swords was also trembling and rippling violently.

Ever since Han Li reached the late-Golden Immortal Stage, he had become able to control as many as nine Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords at once, and that was undoubtedly a massive boost to his power.

The nine Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords circled around in mid-air momentarily, then returned to the gourd at Han Li's behest.

As for the miniature pavilion immortal treasure, its spiritual power had also become more self-contained, but it hadn't changed to anywhere near as significant an extent as the Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords, perhaps because it was simply a treasure of an inferior caliber.

After directing the nine flying swords back into the gourd, Han Li rose to his feet as he observed the gourd with a hint of excitement in his eyes.

In the next instant, he raised a hand to toss the gourd up into the air, then cast a rapid string of incantation seals into it, and the green light emanating from the gourd instantly brightened, while the green runes began to revolve at a blinding speed.

All of a sudden, a thick beam of translucent light shot out of his glabella before vanishing into the gourd in a flash.

With his recent cultivation base progression and his mastery of the fourth level of the Spirit Refinement Technique, his spiritual sense had become far more powerful than before, and he wanted to try and refine this treasure to see if he could make some progress.

This gourd was an extraordinarily rare and powerful Profound Heavenly Treasure, and Han Li was confident that it was definitely capable of more than just purifying the spiritual power of treasures stored within it.

With that in mind, Han Li continued cycling through a string of hand seals, injecting more and more immortal spiritual power into the gourd.

At the same time, he released his spiritual sense deep into the internal space within the gourd, but it didn't take long before he encountered some resistance in the form of a gentle yet resilient barrier that kept his spiritual sense at bay.

This was the same resistance that he had encountered during his previous attempt to explore the internal space of the gourd with his spiritual sense, but the resistance was significantly weaker than before.

This was naturally very encouraging to Han Li, and he hurriedly channeled his Spirit Refinement Technique, extending his spiritual sense deeper and deeper into the gourd.

Even though progress was very slow, his spiritual sense was still constantly advancing.

With every single inch of progress that was made, a huge amount of spiritual sense had to be expended, but Han Li was determined to persevere.

All of a sudden, the green light emanating from the gourd began to flash erratically, and bursts of formidable law power fluctuations surged forth, stirring up the nearby baleful qi into a frenzy once again.

Han Li paid no heed to this as he focused wholeheartedly on advancing his spiritual sense further and further into the green vortex, and two whole hours passed by in a flash.

Right as Han Li's spiritual sense was whittled down to past the halfway mark, a faint yet clearly audible cracking sound rang out from within the green gourd, as if some type of bottleneck had been broken.

The resistance that Han Li's spiritual sense was encountering instantly fell away, and it entered another green space.

At the same time, the resistance in the path of his immortal spiritual power also faded, allowing it to flow effortlessly into the gourd.

At the same time, the flashing green light around the gourd suddenly settled down again, but it had become brighter than before, as was the case with the green runes on the surface of the gourd.

Han Li didn't dare to let his guard down as he carefully advanced his immortal spiritual power deeper and deeper into the gourd, but most of his attention was still focused on his spiritual sense.

The green space that his spiritual sense had entered appeared to be very similar to hte space from before, but this space was larger than the previous one.

However, this space was completely empty with the exception of a ball of green light hovering in mid-air.

The ball of green light was flashing occasionally, and it seemed to be very mysterious.

A hint of curiosity welled up in Han Li's heart upon seeing this, and he immediately began inspecting this green space with his spiritual sense.

It didn't take long before his spiritual sense explored the entire space, but there was nothing special in it aside from the ball of green light.

Han Li turned his attention back to the ball of green light, and after a brief hesitation, he extended his spiritual sense toward it.

However, as soon as his spiritual sense came into contact with the ball of green light, it immediately brightened significantly while rippling like a green fireball.

Immediately thereafter, a resounding boom rang out as a burst of tremendous power erupted out of the ball of light to forcefully repel Han Li's spiritual sense.

Han Li was instantly struck by a rush of dizziness, and he hurriedly channeled his Spirit Refinement Technique to steady himself as a surprised look appeared on his face.

After taking a moment to compose himself, he increased his spiritual sense output as he attempted to examine the ball of green light again, but just like last time, his spiritual sense was repelled once again.

However, he was mentally prepared on this occasion, so he wasn't struck by the same rush of dizziness, but he was still quite astonished, nonetheless.

Unwilling to give up, Han Li continued to extend his spiritual sense toward the ball of green light, even turning to his spiritual sense chains, Spiritual Sense Cage, and Sword Observation Arts, but his efforts were thwarted every single time.

In the end, he had no choice but to withdraw his spiritual sense.

In the meantime, his immortal spiritual power had managed to make some progress, but it had once again encountered some resistance.

A faint smile appeared on Han Li's face as he observed the green gourd.

Even though he wasn't able to get to the bottom of its secrets, his control over the gourd had improved significantly.

With that in mind, he released his spiritual sense to enter the first green space within the gourd, and the green vortex instantly sped up in its revolution, releasing a burst of bright green light that struck a nearby mountain face.

A deep indentation appeared on the mountain face as the section of rock struck by the burst of green light vanished into thin air, having been sucked into the gourd.

Han Li gave a nod of approval upon seeing this.

After countless years of direct contact with the immense baleful qi in the ravine, the rock face had become extremely hard, so it was quite remarkable that the green light had been able to tear through it so easily.

It seemed that as the green vortex sped up in its revolution, its ability to suck in objects had become significantly enhanced.

The chunk of rock that was sucked into the gourd appeared at the center of the green vortex, and as soon as it was encompassed within the green light, it immediately folded together like putty into a ball of black rock.

As the vortex continued to speed up in its revolution at Han Li's behest, the green light it was releasing became brighter and brighter.

The green light swept over the bottom of the ravine, and everything that it came into contact with was torn apart before being sucked into the gourd.

At this point, Han Li's complexion had paled slightly, and he withdrew his spiritual sense from the gourd.

Using a Profound Heavenly Treasure was extremely taxing, and most of his immortal spiritual power had been exhausted in this brief span of time.

Only after taking a pill did his complexion gradually begin to improve, upon which he immediately extended his spiritual sense into the first green space within the gourd once again.

At this point, the green vortex had already returned to its normal slow and languid speed of revolution.

Previously, Han Li had been unable to control the vortex at all, but now, he was able to speed up and slow down its rate of revolution at will.

As he continued to observe the vortex, a thought suddenly occurred to him, and he decided to see what would happen if he made the vortex spin in reverse.