Chapter 307: Immortal Puppets

Spring passed and winter arrived; more than a year had gone by.

One day, a beam of green light descended above the cave dwelling on Red Cloud Peak. As the light faded, Han Li's figure appeared.

He had not concealed his flight. Before long, under Meng Qianqian's lead, the servants in the residence hurried to the courtyard hall before the cave dwelling to pay their respects. Meng Yungui and Sun Buzheng had not returned.

"Qianqian, when did you get back?" Han Li asked, sweeping his gaze over the eight people present.

"Reporting to Elder Li, I returned less than a month ago. Oh, by the way, my brother and Brother Sun found some spirit herb seeds and asked me to bring them to you," Meng Qianqian said, taking out a storage pouch and handing it over.

"Good. If you have a chance to meet them, give them these spirit stones and pills. Also, distribute these pills for me," Han Li said, taking the pouch with a slight nod. He then produced three storage pouches and handed them to Meng Qianqian.

"Yes!" Meng Qianqian took them and nodded in acknowledgment.

"Has everything been well on the peak during the years I was away? Has anything happened in the sect?" Han Li continued.

"Reporting to Elder Li, all is well on Red Cloud Peak. Nothing major has happened in the sect either, but I heard that a Golden Immortal Dao Master will soon emerge from seclusion and will give a lecture on the Great Dao at Guangsha Peak at an appointed time. However, the seats are very limited; generally only true disciples and personal disciples can attend," Meng Qianqian replied, her face full of longing.

The round-faced fatty Meng Xiong and the others also showed longing, but with a hint of disappointment mixed in. After all, being fortunate enough to hear a Golden Immortal's lecture would be immensely beneficial.

Yet they knew well that as True Immortal servants like themselves, there was simply no chance of participating.

"Having a great cultivator impart the Dao is indeed a kind of opportunity, but in the end, everyone's cultivation path is different. While these predecessors' experiences and insights can be referenced, ultimately one must rely on their own understanding. To achieve the Great Dao, one must eventually walk their own path. Do you understand?" Han Li said calmly upon seeing this.

Meng Qianqian was momentarily stunned, then a glimmer of brilliance flashed in her bright eyes. The others also seemed to gain some insight, and their earlier disappointment vanished.

"Alright, if there's nothing else, you may all withdraw," Han Li said no more, waving for them to leave.

Meng Qianqian and the others bowed and retreated.

Han Li stood with his hands behind his back for a while before turning and entering the cave dwelling. After activating the restrictions, he went to a secret chamber and sat down cross-legged.

With a wave of his hand, three storage artifacts appeared before him, the spoils from the recent battle at the Sacred Puppet Sect, taken from Chong Luan and two other True Immortals.

He had been rushing all the way back, taking some detours for certain considerations, and hadn't had time to sort through these spoils. Now that he was finally back in his cave dwelling, he couldn't wait to see what his gains from this trip were.

Thinking this, Han Li picked up a storage bracelet and waved his hand. With a clatter, a small pile of items appeared on the ground before him.

But after a quick glance, he frowned slightly.

This was from the burly man who had first wanted to fight him one-on-one. Unexpectedly, the man's belongings were pitifully few: a couple of mediocre materials and spirit herbs, a few ordinary-quality spirit treasures, and besides that, just over a dozen immortal essence stones and a pile of spirit stones and other odds and ends.

This was truly shabby, no wonder he was willing to work for the Ten Directions Tower, even knowing he'd be used as cannon fodder.

Han Li could only lament his bad luck, but even mosquito meat was still meat. He patiently sorted these items into his own storage bracelet, then picked up the gaunt old man's storage artifact and, without a word, dumped its contents onto the ground. A flash of white light later, a large pile of items appeared.

He glanced at it and nodded slightly. The old man's storage artifact was somewhat decent, with quite a few things.

Most were materials of no low grade, especially a few head-sized crimson crystals that emitted a bright red light like flames, resembling red-hot iron ingots.

These crimson crystals were extremely rich in spiritual energy, with flame-shaped patterns faintly visible on their surface, and faint traces of fire-attribute laws emanating from them. They were actually spirit materials containing law power.

Besides these, there were over a dozen magic treasures, most at the spirit treasure level, a few bottles of pills, over five hundred immortal essence stones, and a large pile of spirit stones.

Han Li waved his hand and put these things away one by one. Finally, he did the same with Chong Luan's storage bracelet, dumping its contents out.

Although he had anticipated it, he was still greatly surprised when he saw the mountain of various treasures piled before him.

There were countless spirit materials and spirit herbs, many containing law power. Setting aside spirit treasures, pills, and scriptures, there were nearly five or six thousand immortal essence stones alone.

So many immortal essence stones shimmered with bright spiritual light, illuminating the entire secret chamber.

With these things, plus his own savings over the years, he probably wouldn't have to worry about pills for cultivation for the next few hundred years.

Han Li immediately put away the immortal essence stones first, then slowly began to organize the rest.

"The Art of Severing Origin?"

When Han Li picked up a white jade slip and swept it with his divine sense, he was momentarily stunned. Then, as if reminded of something, he quickly pressed the jade slip against his forehead.

When he removed the jade slip from his forehead, more than an hour had passed.

The beginning of the jade slip recorded a demonic true immortal technique called the Sephirotic Yin Demon Art, which was of high grade and said to be cultivable even to the Taiyi realm; in terms of rarity alone, it was not inferior to the True Speech Wheel Sutra he practiced.

However, no matter how powerful this technique was, he would not abandon the True Speech Wheel Sutra to cultivate this demonic art. What interested him so much were several secret arts recorded at the end of the jade slip, among which one that concealed aura by sealing oneself greatly inspired him.

But these secret arts were profound and obscure, not something that could be comprehended in a short while.

With this thought, Han Li put away the jade slip and continued to organize the other items.

"Eh, what is this?"

Han Li suddenly discovered a somewhat strange earth-yellow sphere among the many treasures, about half a foot in diameter, covered with obscure yellow patterns that looked very mysterious.

This sphere had been pressed under some materials, so he hadn't noticed it at first. Its surface was also pasted with several white talismans, densely covered with talismanic script, appearing to be sealing items.

Han Li brought the sphere close to his eyes and examined it carefully, but couldn't discern anything.

This object emitted no fluctuations of mana or aura, nor did it seem like a magic treasure.

With a thought, he released his divine sense, attempting to probe into it.

Hum!

As soon as his divine sense touched the sphere's surface, the talismans suddenly emitted a dazzling white light, connecting with each other to form an invisible secret talisman array, which immediately repelled the intrusion of his divine sense.

Han Li became somewhat interested and carefully examined the talismans on it.

Although these talismans were extraordinary, they were clearly set up hastily by someone. With his attainments in talismans, they were not difficult to understand.

After a moment's deliberation, he formed hand seals with one hand, sending streams of spell energy into the talismans, while opening his mouth to spray a stream of cyan flame that enveloped the golden sphere.

After a moment, several muffled sounds came: "Pop, pop, pop."

The white talismans shattered one after another under the burning of the cyan flame, turning into specks of white light that were devoured by the cyan flame.

The next moment, rings of spirit patterns lit up on the surface of the sphere, and then beams of earthy yellow light suddenly radiated from it, dazzling like the sun.

Stimulated by the restrictions around the secret chamber, countless cyan runes instantly emerged on the walls, shining brightly and coalescing into a cyan light barrier that tried to contain the yellow light, but to little effect. The yellow light, like myriad golden needles, soon pierced through this layer of restrictions.

Han Li was slightly startled and quickly formed a hand seal with one hand.

In an instant, all the restrictions around the cave dwelling were activated, and layers of light barriers of various colors appeared alternately, wrapping the entire cave dwelling within them.

The surging yellow light spread out with a roar, breaking through several more layers of restrictions before finally being stopped.

Crack! Crack!

The earthy yellow sphere emitted a series of dull sounds, its surface bulging with bumps, then rapidly expanded and began to disintegrate.

In a few breaths, the sphere transformed into a middle-aged man in a yellow robe, appearing to be in his thirties, with a square face and slender eyebrows, exuding an air of authority.

"A human... no, this is an immortal puppet!" Han Li immediately judged.

The yellow-robed man's skin was earthy yellow, faintly revealing a metallic luster, and his entire body emitted an immortal aura, like a human-shaped immortal artifact, somewhat resembling the Crab Immortal from before.

"Indeed, an immortal puppet!" Han Li suppressed his excitement, his gaze falling on the puppet's yellow robe.

He had seen some of the patterns on the yellow robe on other puppets of the Sacred Puppet Sect. Could this object actually originate from the Sacred Puppet Sect?

Thinking of this, Han Li's mind immediately recalled the situation when he first encountered Zhong Luan outside the forbidden area of the Sacred Puppet Sect. After a brief deliberation, he had a few guesses.

According to his estimation, this object was likely something Zhong Luan had stolen from the forbidden area of the Sacred Puppet Sect.

Speaking of which, he had always been quite interested in puppets, especially seeing how extraordinary this one appeared. If it truly was a True Immortal-level puppet, then he would have hit the jackpot.

With this thought, Han Li waved his hand and sent a spell seal into the body of the yellow-robed man.

Two points of light lit up in the yellow-robed man's eyes, and a layer of yellow crystalline light suddenly appeared on his body, followed by an immense and heavy aura bursting forth.

The nearby void immediately crackled with a series of popping sounds, and even Han Li's entire cave dwelling began to shake.