Chapter 220: Doing It Along the Way

Speaking of which, although Han Li's strike that killed the golden-robed man transformed from the Mirage Beast seemed instantaneous, it was actually well-prepared.

The first time he nearly fell for the illusion and cut off his own arm, he had already secretly activated his soul-nurturing technique, seeing through its true form hidden within the sword dragon, while the phantom light and the golden-robed man were merely a deeper layer of illusion.

He played along, merging the seventy-two Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords into one within his body beforehand, and struck suddenly when the opponent was off guard, thus achieving success in one blow.

Han Li waved his hand, and all the Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords flew back, hovered briefly, then vanished into his body.

He glanced at the golden-robed man's corpse floating on the lake, flew down, lightly tapped the water surface with his toe, creating a ripple, and stood steadily on the water.

He bent down, examined the man with his divine sense for a moment, then raised his right hand, formed a blade with his fingers, and stabbed into the golden-robed man's lower abdomen. With a sudden pull, he dug out a walnut-sized purple-black demon core.

Without the demon core, the golden-robed man's corpse suddenly swelled and expanded.

Soon, fine golden scales appeared on the skin's surface, the golden dragon robe burst, and the figure elongated, eventually turning into a hornless, clawless dragon-shaped beast, slowly sinking into the depths of the lake.

Han Li hesitated briefly, then moved, cast a water-repelling spell, and dove into the lake.

His eyes swept the lake bottom, and he saw the Mirage Beast's corpse sinking toward a palace at the bottom.

The Cloud Cover Lake was a hundred zhang deep, and the light at the bottom was dim, but the palace was an exception. Its entire body was crystal clear like white jade, emitting a white glow, resembling a crystal palace.

Han Li approached the palace and found a nearly transparent light membrane surrounding it, seemingly a prohibition similar to a water-repelling spell, keeping the lake water out.

He did not enter immediately but moved to the beast's corpse, inserted two fingers into its body, and pulled out its sinew.

Han Li recalled that the person from the Wuchang Alliance had said this beast might possess Mirage Dragon bloodline, so he tried to refine it out. But after much effort, he couldn't extract a single drop and finally gave up.

After stripping the usable materials from the beast's corpse, he returned to the palace, cast a simple spell, easily passed through the light membrane, and arrived at the palace gate.

The crystal palace before him had rows of pillars, upturned eaves, and was carved with various patterns of flowers, birds, fish, and insects, exquisitely beautiful, more like an immortal's residence than a beast's lair.

Han Li raised his hand and pressed it on the palace door, then suddenly pushed down.

A series of "chi chi" sounds were heard.

The two white jade doors, three zhang tall and one chi thick, slowly opened inward.

Han Li's eyes flickered, and he walked in through the open doors.

The interior of the great hall was sparsely furnished, with only two rows of round stone pillars lining both sides. Around these pillars were piled several small mountains of items, colorful and dazzling.

He glanced at those items and couldn't help but be astonished.

Those piles of small mountains were all kinds of spirit stones and treasures, including high-quality treasures and ordinary magic tools, mixed together in a bewildering array.

He then recalled that when he saw the Luosha Sect a few days ago, the damage wasn't as severe as it seemed; rather, the sect's treasures had all been taken here by the Mirage Beast.

This beast clearly had a hobby of collecting treasures. These hoards were likely accumulated over many years of massacring cities and sects, and now they all became his spoils.

Han Li carefully searched among the small mountains for a moment and suddenly spotted a translucent object protruding from behind a golden dragon throne deep in the hall.

He immediately strode over and went behind the dragon throne.

Behind the throne was a whole piece of something like a snake slough, clear and transparent, resembling some kind of crystal. When touched, it wasn't cold or hard but felt as soft and tough as silk.

Undoubtedly, this was the Mirage Beast's shed spiritual shell.

Han Li immediately stored the spiritual shell into his storage bracelet, then took out several storage rings and began to inventory the mountain of treasures in the hall, claiming them for himself.

After half a day of inventory, the storage rings on his fingers and the storage bracelet on his wrist were all filled to the brim with these treasures.

Most of them were spirit stones, with low-grade and mid-grade spirit stones in the majority, while high-grade spirit stones were very few, totaling only about six or seven hundred.

If the remaining spirit stones were converted, they could probably fetch another three to four hundred high-grade spirit stones.

It seemed that the nearby sects were all quite small in scale, which was not surprising—if they truly had sufficient strength, they would not have allowed this beast to occupy the area for so many years, causing endless trouble.

Apart from these, there were over a hundred magic treasures and several hundred magical instruments, as well as some strange and unusual spiritual materials, but not a single spiritual medicine.

Those magical instruments were not worth mentioning, but among the magic treasures, many were of decent quality. Naturally, Han Li had no use for them, but they would be quite suitable as gifts for Meng Yungui and the others.

As for the golden longsword previously used by the beast, after confirming again, he discovered that it was a metal-attribute通天灵宝, not inferior in grade to his original Green Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords.

Among the treasures hidden by the Mirage Beast, the quantity of spiritual materials was not large, but some emitted very peculiar auras. Although Han Li could not identify them, he knew they were no ordinary items.

In particular, several pieces of dark-gold metal the size of a human head were clearly not man-made. Their surfaces were embedded with dense, petal-like patterns, and touching them gave no cold sensation of ordinary metal, but rather a slight warmth.

In the following days, Han Li did not leave immediately. Instead, taking advantage of being outside the Candle Dragon Sect's territory, he summoned the Green Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords and activated them many times, performing several of the sword formations he had learned from the Green Yuan Sword Art.

Their power had naturally increased greatly, no longer comparable to before, which left him quite satisfied.

Only at the moment before leaving Cloud Lake Island did Han Li submit the task of slaying the Mirage Beast that he had taken from the Wuchang Alliance, astonishing the person wearing the deer-head mask, who seemed somewhat incredulous.

Han Li naturally did not bother to explain much. He directly took out the Mirage Beast's demon core for the other to examine. Surprised and delighted, the other promptly and generously handed over the immortal essence stones.

Speaking of which, the reason he had taken this task was mainly because it was on the way—after all, he would not really wait ten years for the Mirage Beast to come out. On the other hand, it was also due to a trace of compassion deep in his heart for the suffering this beast had caused.

...

Several months later.

As soon as Han Li returned to the Candle Dragon Sect, he went directly to the Taixuan Side Hall without any delay.

The place was still empty. The gray-robed old man sat behind the red desk, his eyes drowsy, seemingly dozing off. Hearing footsteps, he opened his eyes a slit.

"Eh, it's you, boy. Why are you back so soon? Could it be that you found the task too difficult to complete and intend to use merit points to compensate?" The old man sat up straight, yawned, and said lazily.

Han Li said nothing, waved his hand, and took out a storage pouch, placing it on the red desk.

The old man was slightly startled, picked up the storage pouch, and swept it with his divine sense. The drowsiness in his eyes instantly vanished.

"Hehe, boy, you have indeed not disappointed my expectations. Completing the task so quickly—not bad."

"It was just luck. When I arrived there, the Mirage Beast happened to be out, so the task went very smoothly." Han Li said, glossing over the details.

"You really are lucky, boy. But luck is sometimes a kind of strength." The old man looked Han Li up and down, chuckled strangely, and it was unclear whether he truly believed it.

He then put away the Mirage Beast's spiritual shell, flipped his hand to take out a green jade book and a jade brush, made a few marks on it, and then took Han Li's elder token.

A white light flashed, and two hundred merit points had been added.

"Alright, your first task is complete. Go back and rest well. Remember to come for your second task in a few days." The old man returned the token to Han Li and said.

"Troubling you, Senior. I will take the next task now." Han Li said directly.

"You're quite diligent, boy, unlike those old hands who make excuses." The old man glanced at Han Li and nodded.

Hearing this, Han Li could not help but touch his nose.

Time was not abundant for him, so he naturally had to make the most of it.

The old man then flipped his hand and took out the green jade book again, flipping through it. After a moment, he stopped at a page and slowly spoke:

"There is a rather urgent task here. I'll assign it to you."

"And what task might that be?" Han Li asked unhurriedly.

"The sect has a sizable Fire Element Crystal vein at Fire Cloud Ridge in the southwest of Guyun Continent. Lately, the miners there have been disappearing for unknown reasons, forcing the vein to be temporarily closed. A Mahayana-stage elder stationed there went into the mine to investigate and also vanished without a trace. So they reported to the sect, requesting that an inner sect elder be sent to investigate the cause and also bring back the Fire Element Crystals from the past decade. This task should not be difficult, but the reward is quite generous—one hundred and eighty merit points." The old man said, shaking his head.

"Understood. Since the task is urgent, I will set off now." Han Li nodded upon hearing this.

Saying so, he handed over his token without another word, received the task, and without any delay, turned and walked out.

"An interesting lad..." The old man looked at Han Li's retreating figure, grinned, and said.