Chapter 199: The Northern Dipper Celestial Plate

After putting away the golden orb transformed from Crab Taoist, Han Li's face showed a hint of contemplation.

He carefully scrutinized all the information he had gathered so far, but still could not find any clue that might be related to the person behind the scenes.

After a long while, he let out a light breath and shook his head.

Whoever that person was, since he could force him into such a predicament back then, he was probably not someone he could contend with now. For the time being, it was better not to meet him.

Since Fang Pan had been able to find him before, this more powerful mastermind would likely not let him go either. He just didn't know if this person was aware that he had returned to the Immortal Realm.

Regardless, he must strengthen his power as much as possible to avoid being overly passive in any sudden changes.

Before that, he still had one matter to deal with.

With this thought, Han Li flipped his hand and took out a black array plate, which was the Star Shift Mother-Child Plate.

At this moment, having arrived at Candao Path, he was hundreds of millions of li away from the Black Wind Sea region, and the connection with the formation plate there was already extremely faint, let alone using it to transport heavy water.

As a result, not only would the cultivation of the earth deity incarnation be affected, but the supply of heavy water, which could be used to refine the heavy water pattern thunder—a lethal weapon—would also be cut off.

Both of these were things he valued greatly and could not afford to lose.

Since setting foot on Guyun Continent, this problem had been troubling him. He had given it some thought on the way to Candao Path, and now he finally had time.

Han Li immediately changed into a different outer robe, flipped his hand to take out the cyan mask, and put it on his face.

The Star-Shifting Mother-Child Plate was purchased from the Wuchang Alliance. To solve this problem, he would have to start with the Wuchang Alliance. Although such a treasure for ultra-long-distance, small-area teleportation was almost unimaginable in the Spirit Realm, it did not seem so mysterious in this Immortal Realm.

The reason for this should be related to the power of laws. Such treasures more or less borrow some power of spatial laws or use spiritual materials containing spatial power.

As a soft cyan light lit up from the mask, a cyan light screen emerged, on the surface of which countless large and small text and patterns condensed.

Han Li directly went to the trading area and quickly began searching on it.

Not long after, his eyes lit up, and he reached out to point into the void, then began to wait.

After waiting a full half hour, a cyan light finally pierced through the light curtain, and where the light landed, it coalesced into the phantom of a man wearing a cyan tiger mask, tall and imposing, clad in a cyan feathered robe.

"Fellow Daoist... ah, I remember now, you once purchased a set of Star-Shifting Mother-Child Plates from me. How about it, have the plates been serving you well?" The tiger-masked man looked Han Li up and down, then said with a hint of realization and a smile.

"They're passable," Han Li replied noncommittally.

"Could it be that you've encountered some problem while using them?" the tiger-masked man asked upon seeing this.

"The plates' functions are more or less as described, but you never mentioned that they have considerable range limitations, did you?" Han Li's tone turned slightly heavy.

"Ah, look at my memory, I forgot to mention that these plates can only freely teleport within the scope of a small continent. Beyond that distance, due to the influence of spatial forces, the teleportation capability greatly diminishes or even fails." The tiger-masked man slapped his forehead, looking apologetic.

"Never mind. I contacted you today to ask if you have any way to increase the teleportation range of the Star-Shifting Mother-Child Plates?" Han Li frowned, then said.

The other party had clearly deliberately omitted that detail back then, but he himself hadn't paid attention to it at the time. Now that the transaction was done, it wasn't worth making a fuss over.

"Well... I'm afraid not. The distance of a continent is already the limit of the Star-Shifting Mother-Child Plates. However, if you wish to teleport over greater distances, there are other ways," the tiger-masked man first shook his head, then changed his tone.

"I'm all ears," Han Li's heart stirred.

"Actually, this set of plates is a replica crafted by a close friend of mine years ago after comprehending a certain immortal artifact, capable of only one or two percent of its power. After many attempts, he can now barely produce a replica with one-tenth the power of that immortal artifact, which he named the Big Dipper Celestial Plate. Would you be interested, Fellow Daoist?" the tiger-masked phantom said.

"Oh, how much does this treasure cost?" Han Li nodded impassively and asked directly.

If what the other said was true, having more than five times the power of the Star-Shifting Mother-Child Plates would be sufficient.

"If you can come up with six thousand top-grade spirit stones, this item is yours," the tiger-masked phantom said with a light laugh.

"You're really asking for the moon. That's more than ten times the price of the Star-Shifting Mother-Child Plates," Han Li's expression darkened as he spoke.

"You can't say that. You get what you pay for. The Big Dipper Celestial Plate may be expensive, but it's definitely worth every stone," the tiger-masked man chuckled.

"I simply can't come up with that many spirit stones at once. This is our second business deal; could you give me a discount?" Han Li pondered for a moment, then said.

"Well... it's not that I'm being unreasonable, but this item is truly precious. If my friend weren't a bit short on funds lately, he wouldn't have considered selling it at all." The tiger-masked man shook his head repeatedly.

Han Li haggled a few more times and finally managed to bring the price down to fifty-three hundred top-grade spirit stones, after which the tiger-faced man became adamant and refused to reduce it by even a single stone.

"In that case, I'll give you an answer within seven days, how about that?" Han Li sighed lightly and said noncommittally.

"Agreed." The tiger-faced man smiled and nodded, then flickered and vanished.

Han Li took off his mask, and the surrounding green light screen dissipated. His face showed a contemplative expression as he fell into deep thought.

After a moment, he released his divine sense and extended it into the storage bracelet on his hand.

Inside the storage space, all sorts of items had been neatly categorized into over a dozen types: beast materials, spirit herbs, ores, as well as spirit stones, pills, magic treasures, cultivation technique manuals, and so on.

When he left the Black Wind Sea region, almost everything he had was converted into spirit stones, and most of these items were looted from Fang Pan's storage bracelet.

He now had about thirty-two hundred top-grade spirit stones, still short by over two thousand to reach his target, so he naturally needed to sell quite a few things to make up the difference.

He dared not casually sell Fang Pan's belongings, lest someone trace them back to him, but there was no such concern when trading within the Wuchang Alliance.

Speaking of which, he was quite unfamiliar with the beast materials, spirit herbs, and ores in Fang Pan's storage bracelet, barely recognizing half of them. Fortunately, he happened to meet that Sun Ke on the Thunder Boat.

On the Thunder Boat, he had discreetly inquired about the items he didn't recognize from Sun Ke, and managed to figure out most of them.

Fang Pan, having cultivated to the mid-stage True Immortal realm and initially mastered the Law of Speed, had accumulated considerable wealth over the years. His storage bracelet contained many valuable items, including some rare treasures of even higher value. Altogether, they were barely enough to cover the remaining spirit stones, with a little surplus.

Han Li immediately took out the spirit herbs, ores, and other items from the storage bracelet, planning to sell them in batches over the next few days. Just as his divine sense was about to withdraw, his eyes flickered, and he waved his hand again to produce two boxes, one large and one small.

The large box was a jade box made of some warm, smooth jade, containing a white giant egg. Since the jade box continuously supplied spiritual energy, the egg still retained considerable vitality.

The other small box was about a zhang long, containing three arrow-like cyan feathers, with faint specks of cyan light flickering on their surface, looking quite mysterious.

These two items were also obtained from Fang Pan and were carefully treasured by him, clearly not ordinary objects.

Even Sun Ke hadn't recognized these two items, so Han Li could post an appraisal task within the Wuchang Alliance to see if anyone could identify them.

…

Seven days later.

In the secret chamber, Han Li, wearing a cyan mask, waved his hand, and a cyan light screen emerged, quickly connecting him to the tiger-faced man.

"Hehe, how does it look, friend?" the tiger-faced man asked with a smile in his eyes.

"Here are fifty-three hundred top-grade spirit stones. Do you have the formation plate with you?" Han Li took a storage pouch from his bosom and said.

"Of course." The tiger-faced man's eyes lit up, and he nodded.

The two quickly completed the cross-realm transaction, and two brand-new formation plates came into Han Li's hands.

The formation plates were azure-blue, emitting a soft, watery blue light, densely covered with intricate patterns, much more complex than the Star Shift Mother-Child Plates.

The pattern on the formation plates had seven conspicuous white dots, arranged in the shape of the Big Dipper.

Both formation plates were inlaid with Star Shift Stones, also eight in number, but the color was noticeably deeper, and the light they emitted was more profound, suggesting they were higher-grade Star Shift Stones.

Gently stroking the two formation plates, Han Li's face showed satisfaction, but then he frowned slightly.

He now had the object-transmitting formation plates, but he was currently in the Candle Dragon Sect, countless miles away from the Black Wind Sea region. How could he send one of the Big Dipper Celestial Star Plates to his Earthly Incarnation?

"What's wrong? Is there a problem with these two formation plates?" the tiger-faced man asked with some confusion.

"This set of formation plates is indeed extraordinary, but I have a question to ask you, sir. Is there really no way to increase the transmission distance of the Star Shift Mother-Child Plates, even just once?" Han Li pondered briefly and then slowly asked.

The tiger-faced man glanced at the two formation plates in Han Li's hand, and a look of understanding appeared in his eyes: "It seems you want to send one of the formation plates to another place. There is a way, after all."

"Oh? What method?" Han Li's heart stirred.

"It's simple. You just need to inlay a second-grade Star Shift Stone into the Star Shift Mother-Child Plate in your hand and forcibly activate it. This will temporarily increase the transmission distance several times, but after this transmission, the Star Shift Mother-Child Plate will completely collapse," the tiger-faced man said indifferently.

"Second-grade Star Shift Stone?" Han Li was taken aback.

"That is the Star Shift Stone on the Big Dipper Celestial Star Plate. The one on the Mother-Child Plate is a first-grade Star Shift Stone," the tiger-faced man explained.

Han Li nodded. As long as he could send the Big Dipper Celestial Star Plate back to the Black Wind Sea region, the Star Shift Mother-Child Plate would be useless anyway, so destroying it was fine.

He then bought some second-grade Star Shift Stones from the other party, both to activate the Star Shift Mother-Child Plate shortly and to keep some as spares.