Chapter 238: Short of Funds

After returning to his secret chamber, Han Li sat cross-legged and began to turn things over in his mind.

The half-furnace of Unified Origin Pills he had refined were quite effective, allowing his two months of cultivation to match nearly ten years of ordinary practice, but maintaining this pace came at no small cost.

Since he had already started attempting to refine them and, with the aid of the True Word Dharma Wheel, had a decent success rate, he naturally would no longer use contribution points to exchange for them directly, as contribution points still had other important uses.

Thus, the raw materials for refining became the key.

Apart from condensing crystal grains to ensure the Earth Deity avatar could condense heavy water, the Vial of the Heaven and Earth was now nearly at its limit just ripening the Zhu Ling Grass, and it probably couldn't ripen too many auxiliary ingredients; most materials would still have to be purchased.

However, he currently didn't have many spirit stones on him. Selling some of his previous spoils could scrape together a bit, but that was hardly a long-term solution and wouldn't suffice for future cultivation.

Han Li pondered for a moment, then flipped his hand and took out the cyan mask of the Everlasting Covenant.

There were many ways to earn spirit stones, but considering his current situation, carrying out tasks from the Everlasting Covenant for rewards was the most convenient and reliable.

Although there were also many tasks within the sect to earn spirit stones, that would be too conspicuous. He didn't want to reveal too much of his strength within the sect, lest it invite unnecessary trouble.

Moreover, comparing the two, the rewards from Everlasting Covenant tasks were higher.

As he mused, a cyan light radiated from the mask, coalescing into a cyan light screen.

He looked at the task area and soon found some tasks near the Candle Dragon Sect. There were quite a few, with diverse content. Besides tasks for purchasing spiritual materials, pills, and spiritual treasures, there were also many for hunting demon beasts, and even for finding or assassinating certain individuals.

However, these were relatively routine tasks. Some special tasks also caught Han Li's attention, such as someone summoning several Earth-rank alchemists to refine a certain pill, or recruiting a True Immortal proficient in禁制 formations to破解 the禁制 of some ruins, or even someone gathering a large group of True Immortals to besiege an unidentified mysterious cultivator.

His expression suddenly froze as his eyes fell on one of the tasks, and he couldn't help but reveal a hint of a strange look on his face.

That task was: Find the whereabouts of the 'Number One Sword Cultivator of the Heavenly South.' The reward was considerable, and even providing some intelligence could yield a substantial payment.

After a soft chuckle, Han Li narrowed his eyes and fell into contemplation.

After the test that day, everyone had left quickly, so no one should have noticed the characters he had carved. It must have been someone from the Heavenly Sword Peak who later discovered his prank.

That said, the one who posted this task should also be someone from the Heavenly Sword Peak, and given the identity threshold of the Everlasting Covenant, it was very likely Xiong Shan himself. He probably discovered it afterward and, after careful consideration, thought that this so-called Number One Sword Cultivator of the Heavenly South had made off with most of the flying swords.

And he was indeed correct in his guess.

He had never told anyone about his time in the human world's Tiannan, so naturally there was no need to worry about being discovered.

However, the fact that Xiong Shan could post a task in the Wuchang Alliance indicated that he was most likely a member of the alliance, or at least had some connection to it. If the former was the case, given his cultivation level, his status in the alliance should be quite high.

From this, it could be seen that the influence of the Wuchang Alliance was unexpectedly vast.

Additionally, someone had posted a task to find Bai Fengxian, which made Han Li involuntarily think of Bai Suyuan.

Han Li shook his head, stopped dwelling on these matters, and focused on examining the tasks that concerned him.

After a moment, his gaze fell on a hunting task: to go to a place called the Cold Heaven Pool to hunt a type of true immortal demon beast called the Cold Porpoise, and bring back its corpse. The reward was quite generous, a full four thousand top-grade spirit stones.

Han Li had seen in the texts of the Candle Dragon Sect that the Cold Heaven Pool was located at the far north of the Bell Toll Continent, even further north than the Xuanbing Mountain Range. It was a famous perilous place in the Gu Yun Continent, where many true immortal experts were said to have fallen.

He formed a hand seal, accepted the task, and stood up.

…

Several months later.

In the far north of the Ancient Cloud Continent, cold winds howled and snow fell endlessly, covering everything in a vast expanse of white.

Several snow-capped peaks stood tall amidst the blizzard, silently enduring the lashing of the icy wind.

A cyan figure shot through the distant sky, landing atop one of the snowy peaks, revealing a middle-aged man with a sallow complexion.

This man was Han Li, who had used a mask from the Myriad Transformations Society to disguise his appearance.

Looking ahead from the snowy peak, there lay a massive lake, so vast that its far shore was nowhere in sight. The lake water was a bizarre pitch-black color, like ink.

Strangely, despite the freezing temperature, the lake had not frozen. The water rippled with the wind, emitting wisps of black mist that floated over the surface.

This black mist gave off a bone-piercing chill, far colder than the surrounding wind.

This place was none other than the Heavenly Cold Pond.

Han Li paused briefly on the snowy peak, then immediately wrapped himself in a layer of light and flew toward the Heavenly Cold Pond.

Though it seemed cold, desolate, and lifeless here, that was not the case.

The Heavenly Cold Pond actually contained many rare treasures, especially some unique spiritual plants of considerable value. Otherwise, it would not have attracted so many people to explore it. However, beneath the black water lived many strange, cold-resistant demon beasts of formidable strength. Even cultivators of considerable cultivation who came here to seek treasure could easily be devoured by these beasts if they were the least bit careless.

Han Li skimmed close to the water surface as he flew forward, his eyes fixed intently on the lake, as if searching for something.

Suddenly, with a loud splash, the water surface over a hundred zhang ahead split open, and a demon beast over five or six zhang long shot out, charging straight at Han Li.

The beast resembled a crocodile, its body covered in black scales, with a huge bloody mouth full of gleaming white fangs and a pair of swollen yellow eyes on its head. It looked extremely ferocious, its massive jaws snapping at Han Li's body, seemingly intent on biting him in two.

Han Li's expression did not change in the slightest. He raised one hand slightly, and a flash of green light streaked by.

The black sea beast's pouncing body suddenly stiffened, halting in midair.

Han Li's figure did not pause; he shot directly between the monster's rows of teeth.

A red line appeared on the monster's body from head to tail, and then with a popping sound, it split open. Countless streams of blood mixed with some internal organs rained down into the water.

Han Li paid no attention to what happened behind him and continued flying forward, disappearing into the mist over the water ahead in the blink of an eye.

After flying like this for several hours, he had gradually penetrated deep into the Tianhan Lake.

The deeper he went into Tianhan Lake, the lower the surrounding temperature became, and the strange demon beasts living in the water grew increasingly formidable, some even possessing strength at the Integration Stage or above, attacking him from time to time.

However, these demon beasts were naturally nothing to Han Li; he dispatched them with a casual gesture.

His eyes suddenly brightened. He halted his flight and stared intently at the seabed. Soon, he waved one hand.

A beam of green light shot out and plunged into the water.

A moment later, with a splash, a dark, lumpy object wrapped in green light flew out. It turned out to be a clump of seaweed, emitting a faint fragrance.

This item was called Black Star Algae, and the seabed here was covered with this kind of seaweed.

Black Star Algae was the favorite food of the Cold Porpoise. Such a large expanse of Black Star Algae would surely attract Cold Porpoises to feed.

Han Li discarded the Black Star Algae and flipped his hand to produce a millstone-sized blue object, which seemed to be the internal organs of some demon beast, emitting a strong pungent aroma.

This was the internal organs of a demon beast called the Elephant Trunk Beast, highly attractive to Cold Porpoises. He had obtained it before setting out by spending a sum of spirit stones at the Wuchang Alliance.

With his other hand, he took out a white talisman. With a flicker, the talisman turned into a ball of white light, which sank into the blue internal organs and disappeared.

Han Li waved his hand and tossed the blue internal organs out, letting them fall into the dark water.

Crack! Crack!

The bone-piercing cold instantly enveloped the blue entrails, freezing them into a lump of black ice in the blink of an eye, which sank to the bottom of the water.

Although frozen, the fragrant scent did not diminish, spreading out into the surroundings.

That white talisman was a sensing talisman; as soon as any demon beast devoured this lump of entrails, he would immediately know.

Han Li did not linger on the spot and continued flying forward.

The Tianhan Lake was extremely vast, so naturally he could not pin all his hopes on this one patch of Black Star Algae.

After half a day, Han Li found another patch of Black Star Algae and, following the same method, left behind a piece of elephant-nose beast entrails with a sensing talisman attached, then continued onward.

Half a month passed.

During this time, he found dozens of patches of Black Star Algae, leaving a piece of elephant-nose beast entrails at each one.

Han Li stopped searching for other Black Star Algae and concealed himself in the central area of these dozens of patches.

It was not because he did not want to search further, but because the elephant-nose beast entrails had been used up.

Moreover, enough bait had already been scattered; the next step was to wait patiently.

One day two months later.

A deafening roar erupted from a stretch of water, traveling thousands of li outward.

The water surface trembled violently, sending up towering waves hundreds of zhang high that swept in all directions, while clouds churned and the wind shifted in midair.

At the center of the giant waves stood Han Li and a dark-blue, pufferfish-like demon beast.

This beast was not large, only two to three hundred zhang in length, its bloated body covered in dark-blue bone spikes, its tail shaped like a scorpion's stinger, flicking like lightning. Thick, roiling black qi coiled around the beast, within which phantom faces of humans and beasts constantly appeared, all twisting and struggling in agony, looking utterly eerie.

This beast was none other than the Han Tun.

An immense aura emanated from the beast, having clearly reached the True Immortal level.

The pufferfish demon beast continuously emitted strange cries like a child's weeping, and with each flick of its tail, thick blue beams shot out, raining down on Han Li like a storm.

Each blue beam contained traces of law power, enveloping an area thousands of li in radius with a bone-chilling cold, causing countless white ice flowers and icicles to appear in the void, as if even space itself had frozen.

Han Li paid no heed to the surrounding cold; two thick cyan sword beams danced around him, moving like dragons as they wove a sword net, blocking every incoming blue beam.