Chapter 259: Busy

This gray-white stone furnace was exactly what he had obtained from the monkey king earlier.

At this moment, the monkey wine inside the stone furnace had long been taken out, but due to years of infiltration, the furnace still emitted a faint aroma of wine.

Han Li took a deep breath, then rapidly formed hand seals, striking several peculiar incantation gestures in succession.

Streams of azure light flew out from his palm one after another, landing on the gray-white stone furnace. The eight large runes engraved on the furnace's surface immediately flashed with silver light, glowing brightly.

"Just as I thought..." Han Li rejoiced inwardly upon seeing this.

The incantation for refining treasures that he had obtained from Lin Jiu earlier was indeed useful for this stone furnace.

A glint flashed in his eyes as he continuously waved his hands in incantation gestures, and a dense chant sounded from his mouth.

The runes on the gray-white stone furnace grew increasingly bright, and a faint "cracking" sound came from the furnace body. Vein-like patterns appeared on the surface, emitting a dazzling silver light.

Amid the silver light, pieces of gray-white stone skin peeled off and fell to the ground. The original stone furnace rapidly shrank in size, soon becoming half its original size.

When all the silver light completely dissipated, the original stone furnace was gone, replaced by a silver alchemy furnace engraved with intricate patterns. The eight original large runes remained, now more exquisite and detailed.

"An alchemy furnace of such quality should greatly benefit pill refinement..."

Han Li steadied himself, observed the furnace's texture and aura, and found it no less than Ping Yaozi's golden furnace, muttering to himself.

With a thought, a silver light flashed beside him, and a silver flame figure less than two feet tall emerged, stumbling to the ground. It paused to gaze at the furnace before it, then turned to look at Han Li, and finally circled around the furnace.

Han Li smiled slightly and mentally called out to it. The silver flame figure understood, leaped onto the furnace lid, puffed out its round cheeks, and spewed a massive flame utterly disproportionate to its size.

The silver flame arced through the air, flew directly beneath the furnace, and burst into flames with a roar.

As the silver flame churned violently, a wave of scorching heat began to surge through the entire secret chamber.

Moments later, spiritual patterns on the silver furnace lit up, gradually turning crimson. The entire furnace floated up and swayed gently in midair.

The silver flame figure sitting on the lid seemed greatly amused. It shifted its bottom to the edge of the lid, dangling its slender legs in the air, shaking them along with the furnace's swaying.

Han Li waved his hand, and over a dozen spiritual herbs, including Zhu Ling Cao, flew out from his storage bracelet, hovering in midair.

He clapped his hands together and rubbed them, and the herbs instantly turned into powder with a "puff."

Then, Han Li pointed with two fingers and lifted upward. The lid under the silver flame figure suddenly lifted and flew off.

The suspended medicinal powder, guided by an invisible force, flew into the furnace, and the lid snapped back into place with a click.

Immediately after, the eight runes on the silver furnace lit up one by one, each releasing colorful radiance.

The silver flame beneath the furnace suddenly seemed constrained by an invisible force, twisting into a small fiery tornado that enveloped the entire furnace.

Seeing this, the silver flame figure on the furnace blurred and transformed into a silver firebird, diving into the furnace's base and merging with the fiery tornado.

With a soft "boom,"

the fiery tornado shuddered violently, and the heat emanating from it instantly multiplied several times.

Han Li's eyes brightened at the sight.

Judging by the current scene, the time to refine this batch of pills would be much shorter than before, but he wondered about the success rate.

As time passed, with Han Li's timely use of the Truth Dharma Wheel, the furnace shimmered with colorful light, yet no medicinal fragrance could be detected in the entire chamber.

After about seven or eight hours, the colorful light on the furnace suddenly converged and faded, the furnace body returning to silver-white, though some areas still glowed red from residual heat.

The silver flame rolled up, contracted, and reformed into a silver flame figure, flying out from beneath the furnace and landing on Han Li's shoulder.

With a clang, the silver furnace landed back on the ground.

Han Li frowned slightly as he approached, his hand glowing with light as he waved gently.

The lid of the silver furnace opened, and an intense medicinal fragrance immediately wafted out, filling the entire chamber.

Han Li leaned down to look inside, seeing sixteen round, pale golden pills lying quietly within, still radiating heat and wreathed in faint white mist.

"I never expected this furnace to have such efficacy—not only greatly shortening refining time but also yielding such a high success rate. It's almost unbelievable..." Han Li exclaimed in admiration.

Suppressing his joy, he collected the batch of pills into a jade bottle and waved his hand to bring out another set of ingredients.

He intended to strike while the iron was hot and refine more pills.

...

A few months later, silver flames in the secret chamber converged, and a silver firebird flew out from beneath the alchemy furnace, transforming into a silver flame figure that landed on the ground. It hopped over to Han Li's feet, tugged at his robe, and climbed onto his shoulder in a few moves.

Han Li, slightly fatigued, smiled at it sideways and approached the silver furnace.

With a wave of his hand, the furnace lid slid off to the side, and a rich medicinal fragrance spilled out.

Han Li grabbed the pills inside and examined them closely.

The pills were the size of longan pits, entirely emerald green and quite translucent, exuding a spiritual aura from residual warmth, appearing extraordinary.

"Not bad. This batch yielded eleven pills; the success rate has improved a lot..." he murmured, flipping his hand to store the pills in a white jade bottle.

After a moment, he thought of something, sat cross-legged, and flipped his hand to take out the ox-head mask, putting it on.

With a flash of azure light, a massive array disk appeared on the wall.

Han Li focused his gaze and scanned downward along the task list on the left side of the array disk.

After a while, he withdrew his gaze and took off the mask.

"It seems what must come has come." Han Li sighed, his expression turning grave.

Just now, he noticed that many tasks previously posted by Lin Shiqi in the Wuchang Alliance had disappeared. This was clearly not due to normal task acceptance but rather a problem with his—or rather, his Wuchang Alliance mask.

He concentrated and contacted the soul imprints left at the entrance of the secret realm and the cliff of the Thunderstorm Ocean. Finding them intact, he relaxed slightly.

Under such constant vigilance, another ten-plus years passed.

During this time, he spent half his time refining pills and also condensed many crystals using the Celestial Bottle.

One day, on the square before Han Li's cave dwelling, dozens of young men and women in Culong Dao disciple attire flew in from various directions and landed before the mansion gate.

Standing on the stone steps of the gate, Han Li scanned the crowd and called out a few names:

"Hu Zhen, Luo Tang, Xin Sui..."

"Elder Li..." Seven or eight young men and women stepped forward from the crowd and bowed to Han Li at the steps.

These individuals were all at the peak of the Deity Transformation stage, the most outstanding among the disciples stationed here.

"I will be sealing off the mountain peak for seclusion cultivation for a while. All matters in the secret realm will be temporarily handled by you all. Unless something urgent arises, there is no need to report to me." Han Li instructed expressionlessly.

"Understood." They replied in unison.

"I will leave a secret talisman with you. If a situation arises that you cannot handle, just inject spiritual power to release it. The talisman will automatically fly into my cave dwelling to inform me." Han Li said.

"Yes." They responded again.

"Rest assured, Elder Li. We will not fail your trust." A dark-skinned young man who looked slightly older stepped forward, took the talisman with both hands, and said.

"Alright, you may go." Han Li nodded with satisfaction and instructed.

After bowing once more, they all lit up their escape lights and flew away.

Half a day later, the mountain peak where Han Li resided trembled. Pillars of azure light shot into the sky, merging in the air to form a massive azure light barrier that enveloped the entire peak.

Inside a newly excavated huge cave on the peak, a new fire pit was built near the left wall. On a stone table beside the pit were seven or eight spiritual materials of various shapes.

The most conspicuous were a dozen pieces of dark gold metal the size of a human head and a fist-sized white stone. The former's surface was embedded with dense petal-like patterns, while the latter was pure white and emitted a faint sandalwood fragrance.

These were precisely Hu Wen Jing Jin and Lang Xi Yun Shi.

Han Li stood by the fire pit, waved his hand to draw the Lang Xi Yun Shi into his palm, and gently stroked it, feeling the warm texture.

Over the past few years, while refining pills, he had also been gathering information about Culong Dao. Based on clues collected from various sources, he roughly deduced that Gu Jie was no longer lingering near Culong Dao.

"Hopefully, he was turned back by some Golden Immortal within the sect." He speculated inwardly.

Nevertheless, Han Li still dared not underestimate the wrath of a Golden Immortal, so he did not relax his vigilance against him.

Now that he had refined many pills, he planned to soon begin taking them to restore his cultivation.

But before that, he needed to re-refine the Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords.

He pointed with one hand, and a cheerful, clear cry sounded from within his body. The Essence Fire Bird shot out from his fingertip, flew straight into the fire pit, and burst into flames with a roar.

Inside the fire pit, silver flames churned, and a wave of scorching heat surged outward.