Chapter 13: Strange Phenomena

Because Han Li’s leg was injured, Zhang Tie personally delivered the food to Han Li’s house and accompanied him for dinner.

Looking at the clumsy Zhang Tie in his house, moving the chairs and setting the table, Han Li couldn’t help but find it funny. Zhang Tie’s care caused traces of warmth to enter his heart.

After the table was set, both of them joked around as they ate, pushing food in their mouths while asking about their individual cultivation progress.

The moment Han Li brought up the Way of the Armored Elephant, Zhang Tie sighed dejectedly.

Currently, Zhang Tie had only managed to cultivate the martial skill to its first layer but was already half tortured to death by the immense pain. He had to soak himself in foul-smelling herbal baths every night as well as suffer beatings from Doctor Mo designed to toughen his body and strengthen his bones.

This method of boorish cultivation had caused Zhang Tie many sleepless nights. Because his entire body was swollen from the beatings, the moment his skin touched his bed, he would grit his teeth in pain.

To him, cultivating the Way of the Armored Elephant was nothing but a nightmare.

With regards to Han Li’s cultivation of the nameless oracular chant, Zhang Tie could not help but feel envy in his heart.

He felt that Han Li only needed to spend his time peacefully in meditation like a monk. Hearing Zhang Tie’s emotions, Han Li had nothing to say in his defense. He was also aware that his cultivation was much easier when compared to Zhang Tie’s arduous labor.

Han Li could somewhat understand Zhang Tie’s fear towards the Way of the Armored Elephant. As he progressed through the nine layers of the Way of the Armored Elephant, he would have to bear unimaginable pain.

Despite the difficulty, Zhang Tie had persisted, refusing to give up. Han Li could not help but admire and respect Zhang Tie for his unyielding personality.

If Han Li were in Zhang Tie’s shoes, he would never have chosen to practice such a domineering skill. Even if the skill could turn him into a world-shaking expert overnight, he would still reject it.

The two of them had almost finished dinner as they were talking excitedly about martial arts. Once the meal was over, Zhang Tie cleared the bowls and bid his farewell. Before leaving, he still reminded Han Li to take care of his injured foot and to go to sleep early.

Standing at the door, Han Li watched as Zhang Tie left and quickly returned back to his house, closing all the windows except for a slight opening in the skylight to allow some air to flow through before taking out the mysterious bottle from his leather pouch.

Han Li was only a ten year-old child with a short attention span. After studying the bottle for a short period of time, he quickly got bored. With his foot injury, Han Li also felt somewhat tired out by today’s turn of events. Unknowingly, he fell asleep on his bed with his hand holding onto the bottle.

Time passed by. Just when Han Li was sleeping soundly, he suddenly felt an icy cool feeling flowing from his hand.

Han Li involuntarily shivered, and he forcefully opened his heavy eyelids, gazing at his hand in a daze.

“Oh!” He immediately sat up with his mouth open from shock, to such an extent that saliva dripped down from his gaping mouth. He no longer felt sleepy; instead, his attention was fixed on the strange sight in front of him.

Rays of white light could be seen beaming through the gap from the skylight. The beams concentrated around the bottle Han Li held in his hand, forming many rice-sized white dots of light on the surface of the bottle. It gave the impression that the bottle was enveloped by the rays of white light.

The rays of light looked extremely gentle, not menacing at all, and that icy cool feeling originated precisely from the rays of light!

Han Li swallowed a big gulp of saliva and finally turned his eyes away from the bottle. As if it burned his hand, he quickly threw the bottle to one side before scrambling to the other side of the room.

After a moment of vigilance, he realized that nothing was wrong and slowly inched towards the mysterious bottle.

The mysterious bottle enveloped by the white light, other than looking beautiful, seemed to possess an aura that was not of this world.

Han Li hesitated for awhile before using his finger to poke the bottle a few times. Seeing there was no reaction, he cautiously picked up the bottle again. Putting the bottle on the table, he laid on the nearby bed and closely examined this never-before-seen phenomenon.

Han Li focused his full attention on the mysterious bottle for about an hour and a half without even blinking before he finally realized some of the secrets that the mysterious bottle was hiding.

The mysterious bottle was incessantly absorbing the rice-sized beads of white light surrounding it. No, not simply absorbing; it was as if the beads of white light had a will of their own and were fighting with each other in order to be the first to enter the bottle.

Han Li viewed this extremely bizarre event and used his fingertip to touch a bead of white light.

It felt icy cold! Other than this, there was nothing special about it.

Han Li inclined his head and looked upward.

The rays of white light were still beaming through the gap in the skylight as if they had no intention of stopping.

Han Li surveyed the interior of his room to make sure the doors and windows were all closed before inclining his head to look at the skylight once more.

Han Li was suddenly hit by a thought. He lightly pushed open the door, popped his head out and peek at his surroundings.

Luckily, it was the middle of the night; other than insects, there was no one else.

Han Li returned back to his room, grabbing the bottle and putting it back inside the pouch before hurrying outside again.

He ran towards a remote location before stopping.

Surveying all four directions and ensuring there was no one nearby, Han Li cautiously removed the bottle from his pouch and placed it gently on the ground.

While the mysterious bottle had been sealed in his pouch, the white rays of light had disappeared.

However, Han Li was not worried.

As he expected, after waiting for a while, rays of white light began congregating around the bottle from all four directions. This time round, the rays were much denser than the rays produced in his house. They tightly enveloped the mysterious bottle in a shroud of white light, forming a ball of light the size of a human head.