Chapter 1031: Elegant Taste

The golden-furred giant ape that Han Li had transformed into pressed down on the two metallic beasts with its two giant palms like iron hoops, its gaze flickering slightly.

If he truly wanted to kill the two beasts, he naturally had many ways to do so, though it would take some trouble. But at this moment, he was somewhat hesitant, having taken a liking to the idea of taking these two strange beasts into the Flower Branch Cave Heaven to serve as guardian spirit beasts.

Just as he was hesitating, the long tails of the two metallic beasts suddenly linked together, and two dazzling golden lights flashed simultaneously. The bodies of the two metallic beasts suddenly liquefied, merged into one, and in the blink of an eye transformed into a giant golden tiger.

After merging, the golden wings on the metallic beast's back had clearly grown several times larger, but compared to its body size, they still seemed somewhat disproportionate.

"They can even merge? Truly worthy of being heaven-and-earth strange beasts born of pure and perfect metal-attribute primordial qi!" Feeling the surging aura emanating from it, Han Li couldn't help but nod and smile.

"Roar..."

After its aura surged, the metallic beast seemed to have grown much more irritable. It let out a roar and lunged forward, about to bite at Han Li.

But just then, a sudden change occurred!

Behind it, within the five-colored fire pool, the flames roiled violently. A colossal flame strange bird flapped its wings and flew out from within, its huge silver beak pecking downward fiercely.

"Don't..." Han Li's words had just begun, but it was already too late.

The flame bird's sharp beak had already pecked the metallic beast into two halves, and then its tongue rolled to swallow it into its belly.

"What a pity!"

Han Li still maintained the gesture of raising his hand to stop, but it had frozen in place, and he sighed softly in his heart.

Seeing Han Li's reaction, the flame bird tilted its head slightly to look at him, as if it didn't understand his meaning.

"Oh well, oh well. Since you've eaten it, so be it. Later, when I find Xiao Bai, having that fellow guard the house doesn't seem bad either." Han Li smiled awkwardly and waved his hand.

As he spoke, he had already withdrawn the power of his true bloodline and returned to human form.

The giant flame bird also shrank in size and, following the surging colorful flames of the fire pool, came to the edge of the pool.

Han Li walked over and saw that in one of the flame bird's raised wings lay four round beads the size of dragon's eye pits, colored yellow, green, cyan, and blue, roughly corresponding to the colors of the fire pool's flames.

The four beads shimmered with dazzling light, and within them, waves of suffocating heat continuously radiated outward.

"Seven-Colored Fire Dan Sand? There's this much?" Han Li exclaimed in surprise.

The flame bird's beak opened and closed a few times without making a sound, but Han Li understood its meaning:

"You mean there was another red Dan Sand, and you've already eaten it?"

The flame bird immediately nodded happily, causing the flames in the five-colored fire pool to ripple along with it.

"Hehe, that's good. If you refine and absorb all these Seven-Colored Fire Dan Sands, the power of your strange fire will be elevated another level, and even the legendary ability to burn the heavens and refine the earth might not be impossible." Han Li was overjoyed and laughed heartily.

The flame bird was extremely excited. It leaned back, as if backstroking, and lay down in the fire pool. Without any visible movement of its wings, it leisurely paddled backward.

"Stay here and refine those Fire Dan Sands well. I'll go see if there are any other mechanisms elsewhere. If anything unexpected happens, immediately notify me through our spiritual connection, and I'll come find you." Han Li pondered briefly and instructed.

The latter leaped high in the fire pool and then dove down, indicating that it understood.

After checking around the five-colored fire pool for a moment and finding nothing amiss, Han Li turned and walked into the passage he had come from.

After passing through an underground passage several hundred zhang long, the terrain gradually rose, and Han Li walked out of the cave entrance.

Exiting the cave, Han Li came out from behind a screen blocking the entrance and arrived in a golden hall.

The hall was empty, with few furnishings. Only three round white jade cushions were placed in front of the hall, engraved with layers of circular patterns, overlapping like a maze.

Just staring at them for a moment made Han Li feel dizzy. He quickly steadied himself, and his vision returned to normal.

"Interesting..."

He chuckled and stepped forward to examine them closely. He found that the three white jade cushions were seamlessly connected to the ground and could not be moved.

Other than that, there was nothing unusual. Whether he probed with his divine sense or tested with his immortal spiritual power, the three white jade cushions remained motionless, without any change.

After looking for a moment, Han Li lost interest. He pushed open the hall door and walked out.

Once outside, he realized that he had now arrived at the golden building complex he had seen from afar earlier.

Outside the hall was a white stone square, with only a stone sundial in the center, otherwise empty.

At the other end of the white stone square was the tall main gate of this building complex.

Han Li did not rush to leave the mansion. Instead, he followed a path beside the hall, passed through a round arch gate, and arrived at a flower garden.

Inside the garden were many spirit flowers and spirit trees. Some were in bloom, and flowers radiating heaven-and-earth spiritual energy blossomed in a riot of color throughout the garden.

As Han Li stepped inside, his expression changed slightly. Just like the feeling he had by the spring earlier, he once again detected a faint trace of the law of time.

However, this power was somewhat scattered. Even though he concentrated his mind fully, he still couldn't pinpoint its location. He only felt that this power seemed to permeate every spirit flower around him, yet on any single flower, he couldn't sense it deeply enough.

Han Li casually picked a nine-petal purple epiphyllum and examined it carefully, finding only a trace of spiritual energy residue on it, without any law of time power.

"How strange..." Han Li sighed softly and continued walking toward the back of the courtyard.

After passing through the flower garden, there was a separate small courtyard with three rooms: left and right side rooms and a main room.

Han Li first entered the left side room. The furnishings inside were also quite simple, with only a few bookshelves against the walls, densely packed with volumes of texts.

He casually took down a volume and flipped through it briefly, finding that it didn't seem to be a profound secret text but rather some ordinary secular poetry and prose.

Puzzled, Han Li took down another volume and flipped through it. His expression became even more strange, because the ancient book in his hand recorded neither a cultivation technique nor poetry and prose, but rather an erotic novel.

"Hehe, it seems the original owner of this immortal mansion had quite broad interests!" Han Li murmured to himself with some emotion.

After lingering for a moment in this room, which should have been a study, he turned and left, heading to the opposite side room.

That room had quite a few furnishings, but they were all gold and stone antiques, jade and porcelain items, and the like. As for magic treasures and immortal artifacts, there were none at all.

As Han Li browsed through, he felt greatly helpless about the aesthetic taste of the original owner of the immortal mansion. All of his collections were gilded with gold and silver, florid and ornate, giving the impression of a nouveau riche who had suddenly struck it rich in the marketplace.

When he reached the last main room, Han Li had already given up all hope, but he found that it was actually a alchemy room.

In the center of the alchemy room stood a half-man-high alchemy furnace, and on either side were two ebony shelves holding many bottles and jars of various sizes and colors.

Han Li checked briefly and found that the flames inside the furnace had long been extinguished. The bottles on the wooden shelves contained quite a few pills, the highest grade being Linghai Pills suitable for Taiyi cultivators, and the lowest grade being Longlin Pills suitable for Golden Immortal cultivators.

"At last, some gains." Han Li sighed and collected all the pills.

Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly frowned, his gaze falling on the extinguished furnace.

"What is this?"

With a thought, Han Li detected a faint fluctuation of spiritual power.

He stepped forward, raised his hand to pat the furnace, and lifted it upward. The furnace lid flew off and fell to the side.

As the lid was lifted, a burst of golden light flowed out from the furnace, containing a trace of extremely dense law of time fluctuation, causing even Han Li's expression to change slightly.

He bent down to look and saw that the furnace was glowing with golden light, with ten dragon's-eye-sized pills lying quietly at the bottom.

Han Li casually picked one up and examined it carefully, frowning slightly.

"The medicinal power is strong but scattered and not condensed. It was clearly about to become a pill. What matter delayed the owner, that he didn't finish refining it?" Han Li pondered to himself.

After hesitating for a moment, he put the pill back, raised his hand, and sealed the furnace lid again.

Then, with a thought, he wanted to summon the Essence Flame Fire Bird to help him refine the pill, but then remembered that the fire bird was currently refining the Seven-Colored Fire Dan Sand. He could only smile awkwardly, and with a gesture, ignited the furnace with his own Nascent Flame.

Blazing flames rose, burning continuously. In the blink of an eye, forty-nine days passed.

Inside the alchemy room, golden light flashed frequently. Above the furnace, golden mist condensed without dispersing, forming a mist mass shaped like a lingzhi mushroom.

Han Li sat cross-legged nearby, looking at the scene before him, and couldn't help but exclaim:

"So it was refined using Flowing Fire Lingzhi as the main ingredient. No wonder it contains such dense law of time power. After being left for who knows how many years, it still shows such signs of pill formation."

With that, he raised his hand and beckoned. The Nascent Flame inside the furnace immediately rolled back and flew into his body.

Once the furnace fire ceased, the unusual phenomenon above the furnace still lingered without dispersing. Only when Han Li casually waved his hand and removed the furnace lid did all the mist gradually dissipate.

He fixed his gaze inside the furnace and saw that among the ten pills, three were covered with cracks and had been ruined.

The remaining seven were radiant with divine light, each bearing four Dao patterns, from which waves of strong law of time fluctuations emanated. They were actually seven Dao Pills of considerable grade.

With these pills, cultivating the Grand Five Elements Illusory World Technique would be twice the result with half the effort!