Chapter 696: Tally

Han Li observed the six moons concealed deep within the dark clouds, and a thought suddenly occurred to him as he pulled out his Heaven Controlling Vial, then placed it onto the ground and waited for the moonlight to shine upon it.

However, even after waiting for a long while, the vial displayed no reaction at all.

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this, and he took a glance up at the sky, then stowed the vial away again with a wry smile.

Even though there were six moons in the sky, their light was unable to pass through the thick cloud cover, so they weren't able to activate the vial's ability to produce its usual spirit liquid.

After stringing the vial back around his own neck, Han Li briefly inspected his surroundings before raising his right hand. A glowing floral design appeared on his middle and index fingers, following which a door of silver light that was around ten feet tall emerged in front of him.

As soon as the door of silver light was opened, bright radiance spilled out of it alongside rich world's origin qi that was a faint azure color, presenting a stark contrast with the drab and gray colors of the surrounding area.

Han Li stepped into the door of light, appearing directly inside the bamboo building behind the golden lotus pond, and Mo Guang was currently standing at the stairwell leading to the second floor, seemingly waiting for him.

"Why have you suddenly contacted me, Fellow Daoist Mo Guang?" Han Li asked.

A smile immediately appeared on Mo Guang's face at the sight of Han Li's arrival, and he said, "I wanted you to come and see me as I have something to discuss with you, Fellow Daoist Han."

"You want to leave the domain and go outside, right? If that's the case, then I'm afraid I'll have to let you down. The current circumstances outside are rather complex, so it would be best for you to stay in here for now," Han Li replied.

"Fellow Daoist Han, I presume you're still unaware of where you currently are right now, is that correct?" Mo Guang asked with a sheepish smile.

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly upon hearing this, and Mo Guang faltered slightly upon seeing Han Li's reaction, then continued, "It seems like you already have some idea. I can confirm to you now that we're currently in the Gray Realm."

"It sounds like you're quite familiar with the Gray Realm," Han Li remarked with an inquisitive expression.

"Not at all, Fellow Daoist Han. The Gray Realm has always been strictly off-limits in all of the immortal regions, so very little is known about the Gray Realm. I was only able to hear some stories about the Gray Realm during my time with Ma Liang," Mo Guang replied in an ambiguous fashion.

"What exactly do you want to say, Fellow Daoist Mo Guang? I don't have much time," Han Li said.

"Given your current struggles with your baleful decay, it'll be quite detrimental for you to have to deal with the prevalent baleful qi in the Gray Realm. Hence, I was thinking that I could travel through the Gray Realm in your stead to lessen your burden," Mo Guang said with a smile.

"I appreciate the thought, but at the moment, I can still handle things myself," Han Li replied with a faint smile.

Mo Guang was just about to press his case further when Han Li continued, "Rest assured, if a suitable opportunity arises, or I require your services with something, I'll be sure to call upon you. Right now, the situation outside is still rather unclear, so it would be best for you to stay in here for now. On top of that, if you have any way to return to the True Immortal Realm, then please do tell me."

It was clear that Han Li had no intention of letting him out of the Flower Branch domain, so Mo Guang could only inform Han Li that he had no way of returning to the True Immortal Realm, then took his leave and returned to the second floor.

Han Li watched as Mo Guang departed, then took a glance at the body of the Gray Immortal that he had thrown into the bamboo building earlier before making his way into a silent cultivation chamber on the first floor.

Once inside, he conjured up an aura concealment array, then sat down with his legs crossed on the bed.

At this point, Mo Guang had already sat back down on the second floor, and he stared into empty space in a contemplative manner for a moment before closing his eyes to meditate.

During this past foray into the True Mantra Sect ruins, Han Li had reaped a great deal of rewards, including the complete versions of several time-attribute cultivation arts and the storage tools of Ren Hao, Gongshu Tian, and the Gray Immortal by the name of Fang Jin.

Now that he finally had some time on his hands, this was the perfect opportunity to tally his spoils.

First, he pulled out Ren Hao's blue storage ring, and he briefly refined it before emptying out its contents.

A small pile of glittering Immortal Origin Stones appeared on the ground in front of him, and a faint smile appeared on his face as he stowed the Immortal Origin Stones into his own storage bracelet without any hesitation.

After that, he tipped out a bunch of jars and vials from the storage ring, and he examined them one by one to discover that all of them contained various pills for recovery and cultivation enhancement purposes. Among them, there was an extremely valuable vial of pills suitable for consumption for mid-High Zenith cultivators, but aside from that, all of the pills were quite ordinary.

Of course, they could only be considered ordinary for someone like Han Li, who ate pills as if they were common fruits. For the average Golden Immortal, all of these pills were extremely precious and would be worth fighting over in the outside world.

Aside from those pills, the storage ring also contained many water-attribute materials, among which were some scale-like objects that were presumably kept as spare parts to repair that suit of blue scale armor of his.

There was also a particularly eye-catching blue crystal that was around the size of a human head, and it was riddled with wavy patterns while also giving off formidable water law power fluctuations.

Aside from that, all that remained in Ren Hao's storage ring were some water-attribute treasures, the most powerful of which were that giant blue sword and the suit of dragon scale armor, but unfortunately, both had already been completely destroyed.

However, sorting through Ren Hao's storage ring hadn't been a complete waste of time. During the process, he had discovered a longan-sized crimson bead with nine different flame patterns engraved upon them, and it was none other than the Nine Destructions Flame Bead that Ren Hao had used against him in the past.

This was an extremely formidable treasure, and there was no way that Han Li would've been able to emerge from the explosion completely unscathed if it weren't for his time law powers.

Han Li carefully examined the bead for a while with an elated expression, then carefully stowed it away to be used in a future battle.

After tallying the contents of Ren Hao's storage ring, Han Li pulled out Gongshu Tian's fiery red storage bracelet.

A burst of red light flashed past, and a collection of items appeared on the ground once again.

It was a small mountain of Immortal Origin Stones that wasn't any lesser in quantity compared with the haul that he had secured from Gongshu Jiu all those years ago, and there were even around two dozen mid-grade Immortal Origin Stones among them.

Han Li was very pleased to see this. With this massive haul, his pockets were once again full.

He stowed all of the mid-grade Immortal Origin Stones away separately, then stowed away the rest of the Immortal Origin Stones before moving onto the other contents of the storage bracelet.

There were many containers in Gongshu Tian's storage bracelet as well, all of which contained High Zenith Stage pills.

At this point, Han Li was already a very accomplished pill refinement master, and he had obtained many different types of High Zenith Stage pills in the past, so he was able to identify most of these pills, while only a small portion of them were unrecognizable to him.

At the moment, High Zenith Stage pills were a bit too powerful for him to consume. He could take them if he really wanted to, but most of the medicinal effect would be wasted, and it could do more harm than good.

Having said that, this collection of pills would be sufficient to support his cultivation for some time once he reached the High Zenith Stage.

Aside from that, there were also many scriptures and jade slips in Gongshu Tian's storage bracelet, most of which contained his fire-attribute cultivation arts and secret techniques, and there were also what appeared to be a few maps of different immortal regions.

Han Li briefly examined everything to find that the main cultivation art used by Gongshu Tian had been the Great Heaven Incinerating Arts, an advanced cultivation art that could allow one to attain fire law powers. There were also many cultivation insights from Gongshu Tian enclosed with the cultivation art, making it a very precious find.

As for the secret techniques, there were too many of them to go through, they all required fire law powers for support, so Han Li only conducted a rough examination of them before setting them aside.

The remaining maps came as a bit of a surprise to Han Li. Upon closer inspection, he discovered that not only were there maps of the Northern Glacial Immortal Region and the four allied immortal regions, there were also maps of the Calm Wind Immortal Region, the Golden Origin Immortal Region, and a part of the Middle Earth Immortal Region. The maps weren't very detailed, but they certainly saved him the trouble of having to collect them.

Han Li split the maps up into different categories before stowing them away, then turned his attention to a trio of familiar items, namely a golden plate, a golden badge, and a white disk.

The golden badge was Gongshu Tian's immortal envoy badge, while the golden plate was what immortal envoys used to communicate with each other, and the white disk was what they used to detect the aura of the Spirit Refinement Technique. Now that he was in the Gray Realm, he wasn't worried about being detected by cultivators of the Heavenly Court, so he stowed the three items away instead of immediately destroying them.

Gongshu Tian's storage bracelet also contained a large number of spirit materials, one of which was a golden flower with ten petals. As the white jade box that it was housed in was opened, rays of golden light shone out from within, and they were as warm and comforting as the light of the rising sun.

If he were to plant this flower in his spirit medicine garden, it would surely be beneficial to the growth of all of the other spirit plants there.

With that in mind, Han Li gathered all of the spirit plants that he had found in the True Mantra Sect ruins in one place.

After that, he turned his gaze to a palm-sized spherical silver box. The surface of the box was riddled with intricate and complex patterns, and there was a miniature golden talisman adhered to its surface, sealing the box tightly to ensure that the aura of its contents remained completely contained.

Han Li carefully examined the golden talisman to find that it was one of a very high caliber, and that it was commonly used to seal some extremely powerful natural flames.

Hence, whatever was inside this silver box had to be quite remarkable.