Chapter 979: Black Crystal

More than half a month later, at the bottom of the Yin-Yang Cave, Han Li stood within a massive wind “hole,” fingers forming seals, over a dozen golden-colored flying swords circling his body, shredding countless moth-like creatures that surged toward him into fragments, each dissolving into wisps of black mist. WM.com

These moths were all several inches in size, entirely black, and with a single flap of their wings, countless fine wind blades shot toward Han Li—but all were effortlessly blocked by the golden light of his swords.

Seeing these moths charge forward endlessly, as if inexhaustible, Han Li’s expression darkened, growing impatient.

Suddenly, he grabbed a spirit beast bag at his waist and hurled it into the air; instantly, clusters of golden flowers surged out from the bag, rushing in all directions.

They were his Golden-Biting Larvae.

The moment the black moths met the larvae, they tumbled from the air, immediately falling into disadvantage.

Seeing this, Han Li retracted most of his flying swords and strode forward into the depths of the cave.

Since this was the location of the wind hole, the surrounding black winds raged with extraordinary ferocity. Even with his powerful spiritual sense, he could only probe a few zhang ahead.

Yet, now that he had shaken off the moths’ harassment, he was no longer concerned.

After walking roughly to the center of the wind hole, Han Li’s pupils flickered with blue light, and his gaze pierced straight through the surrounding black winds, revealing everything nearby in crystal clarity.

After a swift glance, he let out a soft murmur of surprise and changed direction toward a specific spot.

After walking only twenty or so zhang, Han Li raised his hand; a white-tinged moonlight stone, wrapped in green spiritual energy, floated into the air, illuminating the surrounding several zhang with clear brightness.

In the milky-white glow, a skull-sized black crystal was half-embedded in the opposite stone wall, revealing only half its surface.

Astonishingly, as the crystal’s dim light flickered, it continuously emitted black moths that frenziedly attacked Han Li and the conspicuous moonlight stone—but all were intercepted mid-flight by the Golden-Biting Larvae.

Instantly, the moths tumbled from the air, dissolving into nothing before they even touched the ground.

“This is the third one. But this one can spontaneously conjure Yin-Ming Moths using yin energy—quite peculiar,” Han Li muttered.

Yet, as Han Li carefully examined it, the black crystal suddenly emitted ten thousand beams of black light, and with a soft “pop,” a giant moth several chi tall materialized from within the glow.

The moment it appeared, its pair of blood-red eyes locked fiercely onto Han Li.

Han Li raised an eyebrow and flicked his finger swiftly.

With a thunderclap, a golden arc shot out and instantly shattered the giant moth. Even if this massive Yin-Ming Moth possessed strange abilities, it could not resist even slightly against the Exorcising Divine Thunder, which specifically targeted ghostly entities.

Without hesitation, he reached out into the void toward the crystal.

A massive hand shimmering with green light materialized before him; with a loud “thud,” it tore the crystal clean out of the stone wall.

The instant the crystal was extracted, the violently raging yin winds around them weakened by more than half. The black moths still battling the Golden-Biting Larvae flashed black and dissolved into mist, vanishing into the wind.

Han Li paid no attention to this phenomenon; the previous two crystals, though much smaller, had also been found within wind holes, and their removal had produced the same effect.

At first, this had amazed him, but now he no longer cared.

Speaking of which, since he had last found the elderly man surnamed Fu and recharged the Ziyou Divine Light, he had separated from Bai Yaoyi.

Without this woman trailing him, Han Li could freely deploy his full array of techniques.

In recent days, as he delved deeper into the cave’s core, he had frequently encountered high-grade ghostly creatures—but all were swiftly annihilated by his flying swords and Exorcising Divine Thunder, leaving not a trace. He hadn’t even needed to summon the Ti Hun Beasts once.

In terms of exploration speed, Han Li was nearly twice as fast as the others. While they finished exploring one branch tunnel, he had already completed two.

Yet the Yin-Yang Cave’s great reputation, despite its fame, had rarely drawn high-level cultivators to explore it—and there was good reason for that.

Having descended this deeply, they had found nothing but ordinary ores and a few damaged cultivation artifacts.

It was only when, a few days ago, Han Li had chased a fleeing ghostly creature and accidentally entered a small wind hole, discovering a black crystal, that he began to take interest in these previously ignored wind holes.

One must know that in such violently turbulent yin winds, Yin-Zhi Horses could not possibly survive. Moreover, entering a wind hole immediately accelerated the drain of both the Ziyou Divine Light and one’s own spiritual power. Naturally, no one would willingly subject themselves to such hardship.

Han Li, however, relied on his Exorcising Divine Thunder for protection and the ten-thousand-year spirit fluid to replenish his spiritual power, so he had no concerns. On the contrary, he became deeply intrigued by the crystals, repeatedly venturing deep into these wind holes to investigate.

Han Li had never seen such black crystals before, nor had he encountered any mention of them in ancient texts. Though they resembled Black Marrow Diamonds at first glance, they were entirely different.

The black crystals were far less hard than Black Marrow Diamonds; they did not contain demonic energy, but rather seemed to be a peculiar wind-attribute crystal formed over centuries of accumulated yin energy within the wind holes, yet saturated with heavy yin energy.

Yet such black crystals were exceedingly rare. After searching dozens of wind holes, Han Li had found only three so far. The first two were fist-sized and lacked the ability to conjure ghostly creatures—nowhere near the power of this one.

After studying the now-inert crystal for a long while with half-closed eyes, Han Li finally raised his hand and affixed several sealing talismans onto its surface, then placed the black crystal inside a large jade box and stored it in his storage bag.

He then thoroughly searched the giant wind hole once more, confirmed there was nothing left behind, and withdrew from the site, returning to the tunnel.

After walking several hundred zhang further, and exploring another small cave, the tunnel grew progressively narrower.

Finally, ahead, a stone wall sealed by ice appeared.

Han Li sighed, yet stepped forward and raised his hand, sending a streak of green light toward the wall.

With a “pssht,” the green light pierced nearly a zhang deep into the stone wall, then vanished in a flash.

Han Li did not stop; he pressed his palm against the wall and swept his spiritual sense into its depths.

After a moment, confirming the wall was solid and contained no traps or seals, Han Li turned without hesitation and soared back along the path he had come.

The path behind him had already been cleared; his speed naturally increased several-fold.

Though he still did not know the full extent of the Yin-Yang Cave, based on the variety of ghostly creatures encountered, he believed they were nearing the cave’s core.

Yet so far, no one had found any trace of the Yin-Zhi Horse—and this was beginning to irritate Han Li.

He had risked entering this place after hastily crafting the Three-Flame Fan; he would not return empty-handed.

Though Han Li had never attempted to break through from Core Formation to Nascent Soul, he could well imagine how difficult it was.

Think of it: every cultivator who reached Core Formation was a genius of the highest caliber, yet in all of Tiannan, only three had succeeded in advancing further. Though Jin Dynasty had more Nascent Soul cultivators, compared to the vast number of cultivation sects and cultivators, they were still one in ten thousand.

Thus, even though Han Li possessed the Dian Feng Pei Yuan Gong as a means to break through his bottleneck, he had no confidence whatsoever that he could truly reach Nascent Soul Late Stage. Now that such a Pei Ying Pill—capable of refining the Nascent Soul—had appeared, he would never let it slip away.

If he failed to find the Yin-Zhi Horse in the Yin-Yang Cave this time, he would have to find a way to obtain the Pei Ying Pill formula from the elderly man surnamed Fu. Though the odds were slim, if he held the formula, he would seek the Yin-Zhi Horse elsewhere. There could not possibly be only one place in the world where yin energy gathered.

As he flew, Han Li coldly weighed his options.

Suddenly, his expression shifted; he fixed his gaze ahead and saw a flicker of light—a green beam hurtling toward him.

Without hesitation, Han Li shook his sleeve; a patch of green mist shot out, instantly enveloping the green light, which he then pulled down.

Within the mist, the green light dimmed, revealing a small, emerald-green sword, with a red jade slip impaled upon it.

Han Li pursed his lips, removed the jade slip from the sword, and casually tossed the blade into the air.

The green sword emitted a clear chime, circled once, then vanished into the black wind behind him.

Han Li paid it no mind; instead, he lowered his head and immersed his spiritual sense into the jade slip.

“Found the Yin-Zhi Horse’s trail—this is good news!” Moments later, Han Li smiled as he withdrew his spiritual sense. He flipped his palm, and a pale white array disc appeared in his hand.

With a single finger tap, the disc flashed green, its surface becoming mirror-smooth, with four faintly glowing points of different colors flickering upon it.

After a quick glance at the positions of these glowing points, Han Li immediately retracted the disc and accelerated his flight twofold.

Half a day later, Han Li arrived at a four-way intersection, where the man surnamed Yuan and the elderly man surnamed Fu sat cross-legged facing a tunnel to the east, the Ziyou Pearl hovering motionless above the elder’s head.

“Brother Yuan, you’ve found it?” Han Li landed in the purple glow, exhaled softly, and asked.

“Indeed. The Yin-Zhi Horse is within this tunnel. But this spirit creature is exceedingly cunning—I cannot capture it alone. So I’ve temporarily blocked the exit here and waited for the others,” the man surnamed Yuan chuckled, a hint of excitement on his face.

“Good. Now that we know its whereabouts, catching it is merely a matter of time,” Han Li nodded with a smile.

“Sister Chang and Bai Daozhi are farther away—we’ll need to wait a bit longer. Once everyone arrives, our chances will improve,” the elderly man surnamed Fu added, equally delighted.

Hearing this, Han Li relaxed inwardly and sat down on the spot.

After several hours, the woman in black robes and Bai Yaoyi arrived in turn; upon hearing the confirmed news, they too were overjoyed.

Without delay, the group set up several simple arrays at the intersection, then flew together into the eastern tunnel.

Yet none of them knew that shortly after they departed, a faint You light flickered beneath the ground at the intersection, and three jet-black corpses slowly rose into view.

Each corpse had a hollow chest, skin stretched over bone, their eyes glowing with cold green light, expressionlessly fixed on the direction Han Li and the others had vanished.

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