Chapter 2091: Volume 10: War in the Demon Realm

Volume Ten: Battle of the Demon Realm

With a sudden expansion of his palm, it transformed into a golden giant hand, which seized the crystal bead and held it firmly within.

Golden light flashed from the five fingers, and countless golden inscriptions surged wildly from the palm, instantly wrapping the crystal bead tightly, forming a golden orb of light.

Seeing this, Han Li exhaled lightly, simultaneously murmuring an incantation as threads of fine crystal silk shot from his fingertips, flashing into the golden orb.

In the next moment, along the crystal threads, a wisp of faint, nearly invisible grayish-white gas emerged from the golden orb; under an invisible force, it was drawn into Han Li's palm.

Thereafter, Han Li closed his eyes and began silently refining this strange energy.

At this moment, his body flickered with unstable golden light, and his aura fluctuated unpredictably between strong and weak, appearing quite extraordinary.

After a full several hours, when he opened his eyes again, his face was filled with joy, clearly sensing that his internal mana had noticeably increased.

"Not bad—indeed, it is identical to the energy of that previous piece of demonic gold. In that case, as long as I find more of this demonic gold, directly elevating my mana to the late-stage Mahayana level after achieving Unity is not impossible. This could save over a thousand years of arduous cultivation. If the opportunity arises, I truly must make a trip to Blue Waterfall Lake." Han Li muttered a few sentences, his expression shifting between cloud and clear.

After pondering for a moment, Han Li suddenly raised one finger before him.

A flash of spiritual light appeared at his fingertip, and a thread of green energy silently shot out, hovering faintly above his finger.

"As expected, this substance also emerged. It seems I must temporarily store it within the demon infant's body, continuing to seal it."

Han Li shook his head, his brows slightly furrowed.

However, the grayish energy he refined amounted to less than one-tenth of what the crystal bead contained. If the entire orb's energy were fully refined, it could increase his mana by over ten percent—already an unexpected delight.

But to be safe, Han Li did not intend to refine all the energy at once; instead, he planned to spend over ten days refining small amounts each time, then consolidating his cultivation.

To avoid the risks of too rapid a cultivation increase, which might leave unknown hidden dangers.

After all, the mysterious energy obtained this time was ten times greater than before.

After making his decision, Han Li immediately flicked his sleeve, releasing over a dozen gold and silver talismans that flashed and adhered to the golden orb, sealing it firmly.

He then took out a small, jade-white bottle, gave it a slight shake, and a stream of five-colored rosy light shot out, enveloping the golden orb and drawing it inside.

Han Li smiled faintly, retracted the bottle, placed both hands on his knees, and entered meditation once more.

Over ten days later, Han Li had not left the pavilion a single step, finally refining all the energy within the crystal orb into pure mana, greatly enhancing his cultivation.

In the following days, Han Li began frequently entering and exiting Phantom Night City, collecting various classics and local specialties. Among them, the Wan Slave Tower—he visited it several times, ultimately purchasing a set of secret techniques for crafting demon crystal puppets from two Void Refining demon clan elders stationed there.

For this, Han Li not only produced several top-tier magical artifacts but also spent a vast sum of demon stones so enormous it would cause even a demon lord to feel the pinch.

Yet Han Li felt no regret over this expenditure.

Compared to the spirit realm's puppet refinement techniques, this demon crystal puppet method is entirely different.

These demon crystal puppets are not activated by attaching divine thoughts; instead, they are triggered by pre-installed restrictions and talismans within the puppet. Thus, as long as the puppet's body is strong enough, even low-level cultivators can easily control it. Moreover, there is no limit based on the number of divided thoughts, and even low-level demons can effortlessly command an army of such puppets.

Upon learning this, Han Li's astonishment was easy to imagine.

Unfortunately, nothing in the world is perfect. While these demon crystal puppets are highly tempting, they also have significant drawbacks.

The primary drawback is that, due to the inability to control them via divine thoughts, these puppets can only execute simple commands through their core restrictions and cannot handle overly complex orders.

Because of this flaw, magic crystal golems are relatively weaker in attack compared to human-world golems of the same tier, with a more singular attack pattern and significantly reduced power.

Secondly, crafting the driving core of these puppets is extremely troublesome, and the required materials are exceptionally rare, making the cost absolutely unaffordable for ordinary people—higher-level demon crystal puppets incur costs so high they are astonishing.

What troubled Han Li was that the enormous price he paid at the Wan Slave Tower to obtain the puppet refinement technique was only for low- and intermediate-level puppets. According to the two Void Refining demon clan elders stationed there, the technique for refining high-level demon crystal puppets is held solely by a few demon lord-level elders in the tower's highest level and will never be leaked.

Even these few high-level demon crystal puppet types are rarely sold to outsiders by the Wan Slave Tower.

This left Han Li with a sense of regret.

Han Li did not overly concern himself with this, as high-level demon crystal puppets would not be of much help unless formed in sufficient numbers for his current needs. He only spent such a high cost to verify his own puppet techniques, hoping to integrate and unify them to advance his puppet art further.

Han Li again secluded himself in his residence, beginning to ponder deeply.

During this period, he attempted to refine some low-level demon crystal puppets to test his understanding, and indeed gained considerable insight.

One day, while in the top-floor restriction of the pavilion, he was trying to activate a four-armed demon crystal puppet when a low moan came from his body; a ball of white light flew from his waist, flashed forward, and transformed into a piece of brocade-like object.

Upon seeing this, Han Li's expression shifted; he raised his hand and pointed at the brocade, sending a green light into it.

In the next moment, the brocade flickered with faint silver light, and a line of silver characters appeared on its surface.

Han Li's gaze focused, he scanned it twice, pondered slightly, then raised his hand to summon it.

The brocade instantly turned back into white light and flew into his sleeve, while Han Li immediately turned and walked downstairs from the pavilion.

In the main hall on the first floor of the pavilion, Zhu Guo'er held a somewhat yellowed beast-skin book, intently reading something; upon seeing Han Li descend the stairs, she immediately startled, rose quickly to greet him, and cautiously asked:

"Master, is there anything you need me to do?"

"Have there been any visitors these days?" Han Li asked casually.

"No! I've been guarding this place all these days, and no senior has come to visit you." Zhu Guo'er replied carefully.

"Good, I understand. There's nothing else—just stay here. I'm going out for a trip!" Han Li nodded faintly, not waiting for the little girl to say more, then swept his sleeve and strode toward the outer gate.

Zhu Guo'er blinked her eyes, still looking somewhat dazed.

Meanwhile, Han Li had already flashed out of the pavilion and, shortly afterward, hailed a beast-drawn cart on the street, heading straight for the city gate.

Several hours later, Han Li appeared on a hidden mountain peak hundreds of li outside Phantom Night City, riding his escape light, and looked downward.

He saw a vast expanse of white mist enveloping the entire mountain peak, obscuring the scenery below so that ordinary people could not see through it.

Seeing this, Han Li's expression relaxed slightly as he exhaled lightly, then raised his hand and shot a streak of firelight downward, which flashed and vanished into the mist.

Shortly after, a faint male voice echoed from within the mountain:

"Could it be Fellow Daoist Han? I will now lift the restriction to let you in."

The speaker seemed to have confirmed Han Li's identity; the originally hazy mist instantly parted, revealing a passage.

Upon hearing the voice, Han Li's expression shifted, his escape light flashed, and he transformed into a streak of green rainbow, diving into the passage.

When the mist before him blurred and disappeared, Han Li's figure suddenly appeared on an open patch of ground on the mountain peak.

Not far away, on two relatively clean stones, two people sat cross-legged.

One had a faint golden complexion, the other wore a black robe—none other than the Long Family Ancestor and another elder of the Long Family surnamed Hui.

However, when Han Li's gaze swept over the two, his eyes involuntarily narrowed slightly.

The Long family's old ancestor was still fine, only his face was a little pale, and he smiled at Han Li, while that elder surnamed Hui had a black aura on his face, looked emaciated, and was clearly missing an arm.

"How did Fellow Daoist Hui come to look like this? Did you two encounter some great enemy on the way?" Han Li asked, his expression turning serious.

"This matter is a long story; I'll tell Brother Han in detail later. I want to ask Brother Han first: now that we've reached Phantom Night City, are you the only one here?" The Long family's old ancestor first gave a bitter laugh, then immediately straightened his expression and asked.

"Since Brother Long has already used a treasure to summon, if no one else has come yet, then it's probably just us. At least, at the inn in the city where I had originally arranged to meet, I haven't seen anyone else." Han Li replied, frowning.

"Well then, let's wait a bit longer; it's not like we're short on this moment." The Long family's old ancestor hesitated slightly, then said so.

Upon hearing this, Han Li nodded, showing no objection, and casually found a rock to sit cross-legged on.

Time passed bit by bit, and after a full hour had passed, Han Li's expression suddenly moved, he lifted his head and glanced into the air, his pupils flickered with a faint blue light, and he calmly said:

"It seems there really are other fellow Daoists arriving; I just don't know which one it is."

Upon hearing this, the Long family's old ancestor felt a slight shock in his heart, and likewise gazed into the thin mist in the high sky.

After a short while, a pleasant female voice came from the air:

"Which fellow Daoist is below? Little Sister arrived a bit late; I hope you won't blame me!"

Hearing the voice, it was indeed the Ye family's old ancestor, who appeared in the form of a young girl!

Upon hearing this voice, the Long family's old ancestor showed a hint of joy on his face, made a single hand seal, and split the mist in the air once again.

A mass of rosy light immediately fell straight down from the air.

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