Chapter 123: The Black Sea Heavy Water Sutra

Han Li stood quietly, gazing at the jade plate suspended before him without blinking.

After a long while, the jade plate hummed again, and beams of white light burst forth, coalescing into a white spell formation.

A gray phantom with an indistinct face stood within the formation—it was the same Wuchang Alliance envoy who had previously assigned the task.

“Jiao Fifteen, I truly didn’t expect you to revive that seed, and in less than a year. An elder in the alliance is quite curious and asked me to inquire what method you used. He is willing to exchange for this method, and you may set the terms first,” the gray figure said directly.

“This… I’m afraid I must disappoint that elder. By a stroke of fortune, I once obtained a small bottle of an unknown liquid. Supplemented with a five-colored spiritual soil, it was tested and found capable of restoring a glimmer of life to nearly withered spiritual herbs, so I dared to take on this task. Only a few drops of that liquid remained, and they were completely used up to complete this task. As for the method of preparing the five-colored spiritual soil, if that elder is interested, I am willing to exchange it,” Han Li said with a wry smile, somewhat evading the main issue.

“What a pity. If you ever obtain such liquid again, feel free to contact me. That elder once said he would exchange an immortal artifact for it. Alright, you have completed the trial task. From today, you officially become a Green-grade member of this alliance. Here is your new mask; take it well.” The gray figure pondered briefly, asked no further questions, and changed the subject.

With that, he waved his hand, and a beam of green light flew out from the jade plate, landing in Han Li’s hand. It was a green ox-head mask. In appearance, aside from the color changing from blue to green, it seemed no different, and even the markings of “One” and “Five” at the brow remained unchanged.

“Thank you, Special Envoy.” Han Li held the green mask and bowed respectfully to the green figure in the formation.

The gray figure said nothing more, merely waving his arm.

With a “bang,” his figure vanished instantly, and the surrounding white formation dissipated.

Everything returned to calm.

Han Li gently stroked the dense patterns on the mask, feeling the strange fluctuations emanating from it. His heart stirred slightly. He removed the original blue mask and then gently placed the new mask over his face.

Once fitted, the mask immediately rippled with a soft, water-like glow, and the just-removed azure ox-head mask disintegrated without warning.

The next moment, a golden text appeared in Han Li’s mind.

This text recorded the methods for using the many functions of this mask. Besides old functions like disguise, altering aura, and secret voice transmission, there were also methods for posting tasks and exchanging resources with other members of the same rank.

After memorizing these thoroughly, Han Li raised two fingers and touched the brow of the mask, then began silently reciting a strange incantation.

As his voice fell, a soft green light lit up on the mask, rippling like a gentle breeze or flowing water, spreading out to fill the entire secret chamber.

Where the green light covered, a massive formation plate phantom, occupying nearly an entire wall of the chamber, materialized before Han Li.

The formation plate was square, covered in a hazy green light, surrounded by intricate formation runes. At its center was a circular vortex the size of a well mouth, spinning slowly, from which waves of spatial fluctuations emanated.

With the circular vortex as the boundary, the entire formation plate was divided into left and right areas. At the top of each area were written the characters “Tasks” and “Exchange,” respectively.

Just as Han Li was about to examine it closely, a golden light flashed on the surface of the formation plate, and many golden characters appeared, mainly recording rules to be followed during transactions.

Since intra-alliance transactions required cross-border operations, items for trade were appraised by designated Wuchang Alliance personnel. Their grade, strengths and weaknesses, and even origins were mostly annotated in the summary, ensuring a degree of fairness in transactions.

Moreover, if a transaction involved breach of trust or default, the dishonest party would face severe punishment from the alliance, and in serious cases, could even permanently lose membership.

After browsing, these characters disappeared.

Han Li took a deep breath and examined the formation plate anew.

In the task area on the left side of the formation plate, short lines of text were written vertically, mostly brief descriptions of tasks, followed by the rewards for completion.

Han Li glanced over them; these tasks included notices seeking people, recruitment bounties for assassins, invitations to form teams of cultivators to explore secret realms… the content was quite varied, and the corresponding rewards differed in value.

In the exchange area on the right side of the formation plate, the content was relatively more complex.

Items for exchange were divided into major categories such as “Spiritual Herbs, Spiritual Materials, Treasures, Talismans, and Classics,” each further subdivided into smaller classes by grade.

Han Li’s gaze swept over these categories and then stopped at the classics category, examining it carefully.

The classics category contained many subcategories, mostly cultivation techniques, with a wide variety of mixed quality.

However, there were not many classics on the path of ancestral god cultivation, even fewer than those circulating in the Black Wind Sea region. As for clearly cultivable high-grade earthly immortal classics, they were even rarer.

After searching for nearly three hours, Han Li’s eyes suddenly lit up as he spotted an earthly immortal technique named “Hunyuan Refining Earth Art,” an earth-attribute technique.

According to the brief summary attached to this technique, its grade was quite high; once cultivated, it could at least reach the Golden Immortal level.

But when he saw the exchange requirement listed after the technique, his heart sank. It required a mature Fire Yuan Dragon Tooth Fruit.

According to the description, this fruit was a heavenly spiritual object containing the power of fire-attribute laws. Not only was the tree’s growth location extremely hard to find, but the fruit also required tens of thousands of years to mature, somewhat similar to the previous Profound Heaven Fruit.

Moreover, from the moment it first bore fruit, it emitted a rich fragrance, often being devoured by other spirit beasts before it could ripen. Thus, mature fruits were rarely seen and often had no market price.

Left with no choice, he had to abandon this technique and continue searching for other classics.

About half an hour later, he found another earthly immortal technique called “Xiaoshan Cold Ice Art,” of a lower grade than the previous “Hunyuan Refining Earth Art,” but it was an ice-attribute technique under the water attribute. Practicing it in the Black Wind Sea region would offer some geographical advantage.

However, its exchange requirement was equally苛刻: the exchanger had to go to a dangerous location in the Northern Cold Immortal Domain to perform an item-seeking task.

The task lasted a hundred years. Whether or not the required item was found, as long as one did not perish there, they would obtain this technique.

After reading this, Han Li naturally frowned and shook his head repeatedly.

After a full day and night, when he had almost turned the cultivation technique category upside down, aside from the two previous high-grade earthly immortal techniques, he found only one last technique, named “Black Sea Heavy Water Sutra.”

This technique was somewhat peculiar. Not only could it condense water law power through faith power, but it could also extract heavy water from seawater. This extraction process was also the method for cultivators of this technique to enhance their immortal spiritual power—a twofold benefit.

According to the technique’s summary, extracting heavy water with this technique could reach up to nine layers, theoretically helping cultivators break through the True Immortal realm and become a higher-level Golden Immortal.

The reason it was said to be theoretically achievable was simply that no one had ever truly succeeded in practice. This was not because the technique was too profound or difficult; on the contrary, it was far easier to cultivate than the previous two techniques.

However, the process of extracting heavy water with this technique was somewhat difficult, requiring an extremely long time.

Moreover, the higher the cultivation level, the longer the time required.

The earthly immortal who created this technique spent nearly five hundred thousand years just to extract a third-layer heavy water equivalent to a small stream, barely reaching the mid-True Immortal stage, and became a laughingstock among his peers.

Later, unable to bear the slow progress of heavy water extraction, he switched to another technique. According to his estimation, completing the remaining six layers would likely take tens of millions of years.

Han Li was not too concerned about this, as he did not intend to follow the earthly immortal path exclusively. His reason for cultivating an earthly immortal technique was merely a temporary means to restore his magical power.

Moreover, because of this flaw, the exchange requirement for this technique was much simpler than for the previous two—it only required any material containing law power in exchange.

Having made up his mind, Han Li touched his brow with two fingers again, and a wisp of green light shot out, landing on the position of the “Black Sea Heavy Water Sutra” on the formation plate, and vanished.

After waiting about the time it takes to burn an incense stick, the formation plate flashed with light and cast a beam of green light into the secret chamber.

Where the green light landed, a phantom figure appeared, a man wearing a green cat mask. He was exceptionally tall and robust, dressed in a peculiar alien costume, looking somewhat non-human.

“Fellow Daoist, are you interested in my ‘Black Sea Heavy Water Sutra’?” The man cupped his hands slightly and spoke.

His voice was very resonant, but his tone was quite gentle.

“Indeed. According to your description, any material containing law power can be exchanged, but you did not specify the quantity required. May I trouble you to elaborate?” Han Li returned the greeting briefly and asked directly.