Chapter 258: Opening the Box

Han Li stood at the edge of the square, gazing at the peculiar scenery of the secret realm. His eyes were somewhat unfocused, his mind clearly elsewhere.

He had arrived here over a month ago and had already thoroughly explored the environment outside the Great Chasm. The only way in and out was through the single entrance, so he had only to set up a restriction outside the entrance and leave a strand of divine sense to detect Gu Jie before he could pursue him into the secret realm.

Of course, because there was only one entrance, escaping from here would also be troublesome.

To solve this problem, before coming here, Han Li had made a trip to a secluded sea cliff at the southern end of the Ancient Cloud Continent, near the Thunderstorm Ocean, and excavated a cave there.

Inside the cave, he used nine Thunderbinding Wood to set up a stable lightning array capable of ultra-long-distance teleportation and made a soul mark there.

After that, as long as he was near the Ancient Cloud Continent, when he used the lightning array to teleport, he could connect with the soul mark on that array and instantly teleport there.

If Gu Jie really pursued him here, he could teleport there at the fastest speed and then flee into the Thunderstorm Ocean, giving him a high chance of escaping Gu Jie's pursuit.

However, because this lightning array was in a constant state of activation, it consumed the lightning power in the Thunderbinding Wood every moment. It could last at most less than a hundred years before the lightning power was exhausted and the array became completely useless.

"Since I'm here, I might as well settle in and deal with the matters at hand." Han Li muttered to himself, patted the white jade railing with both hands, turned around, and walked toward the cave dwelling on the other side of the square.

Returning to the secret chamber in the dwelling, Han Li sat cross-legged. With a flip of his palm, two thin yellow pages appeared in his hand, and he examined them carefully.

These two pages recorded nothing other than the recipes for the Unified Origin Pill and the Spring Rain Pill.

Han Li currently wanted to quickly improve his strength and enhance his cultivation, so he had to refine a large number of Earth-grade pills to assist his cultivation.

As for the Unified Origin Pill, he already had considerable experience in refining it, with a much higher success rate than before. Although he had not yet refined the Spring Rain Pill, with the help of the True Word Wheel, he believed it would not be too difficult.

At present, he was not lacking the spiritual herbs needed to refine these two pills. However, for the long term, after arriving here, he had planted most of the spiritual herb seeds in the private spiritual herb garden of the cave dwelling.

He knew well that although he had two Earth-grade recipes in hand, long-term consumption of the same pill would inevitably lead to drug resistance over time. When the pill's efficacy declined, it would not only waste spiritual herbs but also slow down his cultivation speed.

Therefore, he needed more different types of recipes to refine more Earth-grade pills.

Long ago, he had posted a task in the Everlasting Alliance to exchange for Earth-grade recipes. However, because the recipes were too precious, most Earth-grade pill masters were unwilling to trade, so he had never succeeded.

Thinking of this, Han Li flipped his palm, and a purple jade box appeared in his hand. It was the one he had obtained from Ping Yaozi.

Since this item had been so carefully sealed by someone close to the level of a Heaven-grade pill master, what it contained might very well be a recipe that pill masters treasured as much as their lives.

His gaze swept over the dense patterns on the purple box. With a flick of his wrist, more than a dozen black flags, each about an inch in size, appeared before him. The flags were pitch black, their material like iron, engraved with many complex and obscure dark patterns.

Han Li picked up these iron flags and inserted them into the stone floor in a circular pattern. Then, raising a finger, he lightly tapped to embed them into the ground and began to trace lines back and forth among the flags.

Soon, a rather complex small formation appeared on the ground.

Han Li placed the purple jade box in the center of the formation, then pressed two fingers together, formed a hand seal, and began to chant softly.

As the chanting sounded, the dark patterns on the black iron flags and the array patterns traced on the ground lit up.

"Activate!"

Han Li let out a soft shout.

The entire formation burst into a dazzling light, engulfing the purple jade box.

A soft "chi" sound was heard.

The silver talisman tightly attached to the jade box flashed with light and then directly burned up.

As the purple jade box was scorched by the flames, the patterns engraved on its surface also lit up one after another, making the entire box appear crystal clear, like a piece of exquisite purple crystal. Before Han Li could finish admiring the beautiful sight, the jade box suddenly trembled violently, and the patterns on its surface grew brighter and brighter, as if they were about to crack.

"How could this be..."

Han Li's heart tightened. Blue light shone in his eyes as he immediately activated his Brightclarity Spirit Eyes.

He saw that within the purple jade box, hidden runes that were barely visible to the naked eye were glowing brightly, about to activate a self-destruction mechanism that would shatter the entire box and its contents.

The sealing technique on this jade box had two layers, one overt and one covert. If only the surface silver talisman was removed, the hidden runes inside would activate, causing irreparable consequences.

At this critical moment, Han Li silently recited the True Word Wheel Sutra. Golden light radiated from his body, and a golden wheel about a foot in size suddenly appeared behind him, slowly rotating.

As his mind moved, the True Word Wheel spun rapidly, emitting countless golden ripples that spread outward, instantly covering an area of ten zhang around him.

Inside the secret chamber, everything except Han Li himself suddenly slowed down.

The light of the runes inside the purple jade box, which had previously seemed to shine continuously due to its speed, now slowed down. Han Li realized that it was actually flickering on and off.

He pressed his two fingers together, moving them like lightning. His hands moved like illusions across the ground, quickly picking up the black iron flags and in an instant rearranging them into a small formation.

"Activate!"

Han Li let out a soft shout. The formation immediately blazed with light, and strands of black light, like small arrows, shot from the black iron flags into the purple jade box.

Inside the box, the light of the hidden runes dimmed, stopped flickering, and then silently dissipated. The flames burning outside the box also gradually shrank.

When the talisman flames completely extinguished, the patterns on the purple jade box also faded and disappeared. With a soft "pop," the box opened by itself.

Han Li withdrew the True Word Wheel into his body, reached out, and grabbed the purple jade box as it flew through the air, landing in his palm.

He had already set up a high-level prohibitive formation outside the entire secret chamber, so he was not worried that the jade box might contain any unknown means that would expose his current location.

He focused his gaze and saw that the jade box was empty except for a stack of thin, pale gold pages lying quietly at the bottom.

Han Li first released his divine sense to scan them, and finding no divine sense imprints on them, he picked them up and examined them carefully.

On the top page, three large characters in ancient seal script read "Chengwan Pill." Below, in slightly smaller script, were listed the names of spiritual herbs, their required ages and amounts, and the refining method.

A look of delight appeared on Han Li's face. As he had expected, the jade box contained recipes.

After quickly glancing through the first page, he turned to the next and read through more than ten pages. To his surprise, he found that most of these recipes were Earth-grade, including the top one for Chengwan Pill, totaling seven recipes.

However, thinking that Ping Yaozi had already reached the level of being able to refine Dao-grade pills, he felt relieved.

With these seven Earth-grade recipes, plus the Unified Origin Pill and Spring Rain Pill, he would not need to trouble himself searching for recipes for a long time to come.

Based on the description of the pill's properties and appearance in the recipe, Han Li basically confirmed that the bottle of yellow pills he had obtained from Ping Yaozi was indeed the Chengwan Pill.

In terms of grade, these pills seemed to be of a higher quality than the Spring Rain Pill. Naturally, the spiritual herbs used were not ordinary. Not only were the varieties rare, but the main ingredients also required ages of over fifty or sixty thousand years.

Fortunately, the Floating Mountain Secret Realm where Han Li was located was itself a natural treasure trove of spiritual herbs. Many spiritual herbs could be found here. Given his status, the sect would naturally not interfere if he only collected herbs that were less than a hundred years old.

After that, he could use the vial's spiritual liquid to accelerate the growth of the main ingredients to the required age. For the other ingredients, he would buy them with Immortal Origin Stones as much as possible. It was only a matter of time.

Suppressing his joy, Han Li picked up the jade box to put the recipes away. Just then, the corner of his eye caught something unusual at the bottom of the box.

He flipped his palm and took out a dagger as thin as a willow leaf. He inserted it along the edge of the jade box and gently pried upward.

A soft "crack" was heard.

A smooth, mirror-like purple jade plate was pried up from the bottom of the box.

Han Li picked up the jade plate, which was not much thicker than paper, and examined it carefully before his eyes.

Through the firelight in the secret chamber, he could see that the seemingly smooth jade plate was covered with extremely fine, dense lines, interconnected to form a very complex floral pattern.

Han Li closed his eyes, gathered his divine sense, and probed toward the jade plate.

The moment his divine sense touched the jade plate, the floral pattern on the surface rippled with a layer of golden light, and golden runes flew out, directly repelling his divine sense.

After several attempts, the result was the same. He sighed lightly and had to give up for the time being.

It was not that he could not use powerful divine sense to forcibly break through it, but he had a vague feeling that this jade plate held some hidden secret, and he was unwilling to risk damaging it.

With no other choice, he put the jade plate and the recipes back into the jade box and stored it away.

Then, he waved his hand before him. After a flash of light, a gray-white stone furnace over one zhang tall materialized out of thin air and landed on the ground with a "thud."