Chapter 1690: Missed Opportunity

If so, the significance of this Post-Heaven Profound Heaven Treasure to Han Li was naturally extraordinary.

And even if the five mountain peaks could not be refined completely, possessing just two or three of them could also assist him in resisting the power of the Thunder Tribulation.

Now that he was a Void Refinement stage cultivator, he needed to undergo a Great Heavenly Tribulation every three thousand years. It seemed the time had become longer, but the severity of the Great Heavenly Tribulation was far from comparable to the Small Heavenly Tribulation of the Spirit Severing and Nascent Soul stages.

For Void Refinement stage cultivators, the first Great Heavenly Tribulation could basically be passed safely. But by the second or third, people began to fall.

Those who could reach the fourth or fifth were basically all Void Refinement late-stage existences with lifespans exceeding ten thousand years, but those among them who could survive these two Great Heavenly Tribulations were very few, no more than two or three out of ten.

As for the Great Heavenly Tribulations thereafter, every time one was passed, the cultivators of the same period would basically fall by more than seven or eight out of ten.

It was said that since the human race established itself in the Spirit Realm, no Void Refinement stage existence had ever been able to pass the ninth Great Heavenly Tribulation. Anyone who had passed more than nine Great Heavenly Tribulations was at least a Body Integration stage cultivator. Even if their divine abilities far exceeded those of the same stage, if they did not advance to the Body Integration stage, they would definitely fall when the ninth Great Heavenly Tribulation arrived.

Of course, this was the situation for human cultivators undergoing tribulations. Once the demon race transformed, their Heavenly Tribulation situation was similar to that of the human race. But because of the different lifespans and cultivation technique talents of other exotic races in the Spirit Realm, although they also needed to undergo Heavenly Tribulations every certain number of years, the length of the intervals and the severity were vastly different.

It was said that some exotic race Heavenly Tribulations, whose strength far exceeded those of the human race, would only cycle once every ten thousand years, but once they arrived, the severity was far from comparable to the human race's Heavenly Tribulation of the same stage. There were also some races whose lifespans were much shorter than the human race, and their Heavenly Tribulations would actually descend once every few decades, but the power was less than one or two tenths of the human race's Heavenly Tribulation of the same stage.

Once a cultivator reaches the Body Integration stage, the power of the Great Heavenly Tribulation is far beyond what a Void Refinement cultivator can compare to; every tribulation feels like crossing a gate of life and death. Those who fail are naturally cast back into the cycle of reincarnation, while those who succeed are like being reborn through fire, gaining at least some increase in cultivation. A few, under the baptism of the lightning tribulation, can even break through their existing cultivation bottlenecks in one fell swoop.

Therefore, Body Integration and above existences, except for major events related to the survival of their race, rarely walked outside, and almost all their time was spent on cultivation and preparing for the next life-and-death tribulation.

Of course, these Great Heavenly Tribulations were not all pure Thunder Tribulations, but there was no doubt that every time, there must be a Thunder Tribulation, and it was dominated by the Thunder Tribulation.

Therefore, the importance of this Five-Pole Mountain of Origin Harmony, which could weaken the power of the Thunder Tribulation by nearly half, was self-evident.

Being able to refine this mountain was equivalent to having the survival probability during tribulation increase by nearly half out of thin air.

However, apart from the Origin Magnetic Divine Mountain he already had, he had absolutely no clue about the whereabouts of the other four mountain peaks. In addition to the four mountain peaks with great power, the auxiliary materials needed to be mixed into the mountain peaks were all rare and extraordinary. Some were even things that even Han Li had only heard of and had never seen with his own eyes.

This made him feel greatly depressed in his heart.

Han Li pondered in the secret chamber with a changing expression for a long time before his expression gradually returned to peace.

He glanced at the jade page in his hand, and with a flip of his other hand, a jade box appeared.

He put the jade page into the box, pasted it with barrier talismans, and put it away.

Even with the refining method, he had absolutely no certainty that he could really refine two or three of the extreme mountains.

Such supreme treasures were mostly impossible to force, and it depended on whether he would have such a great opportunity in the future.

Having figured this out, Han Li sat cross-legged quietly for a while longer, and his state of mind finally returned to complete peace.

He suddenly shook his sleeve, and a round ring flew out from his sleeve.

After the ring circled once and the light converged, a ball of black light fell from it and landed lightly on the ground.

In the black light, a small black monkey was curled up, motionless.

It was precisely the Soul-Devouring Beast.

Ever since this beast suddenly displayed great power that day to kill the Cave Spirit possessed by the Heavenly Outer Demon Sovereign's incarnation, it had also fallen into a coma as if exhausted, and it still hadn't woken up to this day.

Seeing this, Han Li's expression sank, but he grabbed toward the small monkey in the void with one hand.

A streak of cyan light flew out from between his five fingers, rolling the small monkey into it and easily capturing it in front of him.

Han Li looked at the small beast in front of him, his eyes narrowing slightly. Suddenly, crystal threads that seemed to be solid shot out from between his eyebrows and silently pierced into the small monkey's body.

In order to figure out the true situation of the Soul-Devouring Beast, Han Li actually condensed his divine sense into threads and released them outside his body to directly test the beast's body.

The crystal threads pierced into the small monkey's body, but the Soul-Devouring Beast remained motionless, showing no reaction at all.

But Han Li had already half-closed his eyes, beginning to manipulate the divine sense crystal threads to carefully examine every change within the beast's body.

After a long while, Han Li whispered in disbelief.

"Impossible, how could such a thing happen!"

The Soul-Devouring Beast's previously depleted magic power had not only long since recovered, but both its physical toughness and the magic power contained in its meridians had surged by more than half compared to before. And during the period he was observing carefully, the strange changes within the beast were still continuing at an extremely slow speed, as if they had never stopped for a moment.

"Could it be that it is going to advance again?" Han Li looked at the small monkey in front of him, his face full of strangeness.

Previously, the Soul-Devouring Beast hadn't devoured any great supplements, so how could such a surge in physical strength and magic power occur? Could it be that all of this had something to do with the beast's abnormal display of power in the Demon Gold Mountain Range that day?

Han Li was surprised while continuing to increase his divine sense power, continuing to probe everything within the Soul-Devouring Beast's body.

"No, what is this? This thing was definitely not in its body before." Han Li suddenly exclaimed with a movement of his expression.

He had actually discovered countless transparent crystal grains that were almost invisible in the depths of the Soul-Devouring Beast's dantian.

These crystal grains were extremely secretive, even only one-tenth the size of a rice grain, with no aura at all, but they were wrapped in balls of soul-devouring light within the Soul-Devouring Beast's body, seemingly being continuously refined.

Han Li's thoughts turned rapidly, and he almost immediately recalled the scene in the Demon Gold Mountain Range where this beast killed the Cave Spirit's primordial spirit and swallowed it into its abdomen.

Could this object be what the Cave Spirit's primordial spirit had transformed into, or something left behind by the Heavenly Outer Demon Sovereign who possessed it?

However, before, no matter what kind of fierce ghosts or evil spirits the Soul-Devouring Beast devoured, it seemed it had never had such a strange change.

He couldn't help but fall into silence...

Could it be that thing?

A flash of inspiration crossed Han Li's mind, and he suddenly thought of something, his face changing drastically.

He almost didn't think much, and with a movement of the crystal thread that had pierced into the Soul-Devouring Beast's body, he immediately rolled up one of the crystal grains in its dantian and pulled it out of its body.

The crystal grain that emerged outside the Soul-Devouring Beast's body was almost invisible to the naked eye, and the crystal thread flashed and dissipated.

Han Li pointed solemnly at this crystal grain.

A cyan thread shot out, sticking to the crystal grain, and with a roll, sent it right under his eyelids.

Han Li's pupils shone with dazzling blue light, and he used the Clear Eye divine ability to the extreme, staring fixedly at the crystal grain without blinking.

After a long while, Han Li let out a long breath, and suddenly, with a flip of his hand, a jade bottle the size of a thumb appeared in his hand.

With a movement of the cyan thread, the crystal grain was sent into the small bottle.

And the small bottle disappeared bizarrely from his palm.

Afterwards, Han Li shook his sleeve toward the air.

Suddenly, the Spirit Beast Ring that had been hovering in mid-air dropped downward, and a burst of radiance sprayed out, instantly drawing the Soul-Returning Beast on the ground into it.

After Han Li retracted the Spirit Beast Ring, he stood up immediately, took a large stride toward the stone door, and left the secret chamber in such a hurry.

Almost the moment he walked out of the secret chamber door, Han Li's divine sense moved, and he gave the order to "Doll," who was waiting in the medicine garden, to guard the cave dwelling well. He then activated his escape light, transforming into a cyan rainbow and shooting out.

A moment later, Han Li appeared outside the cave dwelling and flew rapidly to the foot of the mountain. Afterwards, he summoned a beast carriage and headed straight for the center of Cloud City.

Over the next ten or so days, Han Li actually threw himself into all the shops in Cloud City that sold classics, selectively purchasing a large number of obscure classics that he hadn't paid attention to before. These classics were of all kinds, including both cultivation techniques and secret arts, as well as miscellaneous books that only introduced various strange objects and anecdotes.

And after bringing these classics back to the cave dwelling, Han Li would immediately begin to scan the contents of these classics at a shocking speed, as if looking for something. But after a night passed, he would walk out of the secret chamber with a face full of disappointment, and then leave the cave dwelling again to go to other larger classic shops in Cloud City, continuing to purchase a large number of classics to bring back.

Five or six days passed, and Han Li did this almost every day. The number of classics purchased during these days and the amount of spirit stones spent for this were both an astonishing number.

But on this day, when Han Li returned from Cloud City again and was scanning a piece of antique jade in the secret chamber at high speed, a look of surprise and joy suddenly appeared on his face.

"Not bad, finally found it. I knew it, even if True Spirit Origin is rarely known, there will always be records in some ancient classics."

He muttered, then his expression froze, and he began to calm his heart to read the contents of the jade piece in his hand carefully.

Han Li's figure was as motionless as a stone, his entire heart and mind attracted by the piece in his hand.

After an unknown amount of time, his body moved slightly, and he let out a long sigh, throwing the jade piece in his hand onto the ground, his face full of extreme disappointment.

"How could it be like this? Such a heaven-sent opportunity has actually slipped through my fingers just like this."

He muttered disappointedly, his palm almost subconsciously flipping, and the small bottle containing the crystal grain appeared.

After the bottle cap was opened, the crystal grain drifted out and hovered motionless at the mouth of the bottle.

Looking at this seemingly ordinary crystal grain, Han Li's lips moved slightly, but he gave a bitter smile.

===== CHAPTER 1691 =====