Chapter 38: A Way Out of the Darkness

Han Li put away the two talismans with a flick of his hand, then sat down cross-legged, pinching the black bead between two fingers and pressing it against his brow.

The silvery smoke within the bead immediately began to drift out in wisps, swirling briefly at his brow before sinking into it.

Upon closer inspection, the silvery smoke turned out to be countless tiny characters, even smaller than mosquitoes or flies. They were precisely the secret techniques and scriptures that the Jia Yuan puppet had spied on in the Sutra Library, the accumulated knowledge of the Cold Flame Sect over so many years.

With so much content, even Han Li's formidable divine soul could not absorb it all at once.

But he was not in a hurry; he had plenty of time to study it slowly.

Time passed little by little, and Han Li remained seated motionless, sitting like this for three days and three nights.

It was not until the morning of the fourth day that he slowly opened his eyes, his brow slightly furrowed.

Although some of these scriptures were quite exquisite and contained ingenious ideas that even he could not help but admire, they were of no use to him now.

Han Li shook his head, put away the black bead, and with a flick of his sleeve, thirty or forty jade slips appeared on the ground—precisely those that the Jia Yuan puppet had taken at the last moment.

His gaze swept slowly over these jade slips, his expression somewhat complex, hoping to find something useful among them.

With this thought, Han Li picked up a jade slip and gradually extended his divine sense into it.

Thus another full day passed.

When Han Li withdrew his divine sense from the last jade slip, undisguised disappointment showed in his eyes.

Most of these thirty or forty jade slips recorded some profound and abstruse techniques, but still nothing useful to him now.

Han Li gave a bitter smile. He had gone to great trouble to obtain so many scriptures from the Cold Flame Sect, nearly alarming the entire sect, only to end up with nothing.

He shook his head and, with a sweep of his sleeve, prepared to destroy all the jade slips.

Although he had just checked them and found no tracking restrictions left behind, this Spirit Huan Realm had strange things like the Primordial Purple Qi, and it was hard to guarantee there weren't methods even he couldn't detect. Better to destroy them.

“Eh!” Han Li suddenly froze.

The thirty-odd jade slips turned into a pile of powder, but one seemingly ordinary pale yellow jade slip remained completely intact.

After a moment's thought, he picked up the jade slip curiously, brought it close to his eyes, and examined it carefully.

Even a piece of refined iron would have shattered under that casual sweep of his sleeve, yet this small jade slip was completely unharmed.

But the jade slip was nothing special—just made of ordinary jade—and its contents, which he had already read, were merely a body refinement technique suitable for the Void Refinement stage.

Han Li looked at the yellow jade slip and squeezed it slightly with his fingers.

Suddenly, a faint starlight-like glow appeared on the surface of the yellow jade slip, resisting his force.

His eyes brightened slightly, and he stopped; the starlight then disappeared as well.

There was indeed something mysterious about this object!

He could sense that the starlight was not a tracking restriction.

Han Li looked at the jade slip in his hand, and with a thought, he extended his divine sense into it again.

There was something mysterious about this object; the technique recorded inside might be extraordinary, and he might have missed it before.

As a result, he carefully read the technique from beginning to end three or four times, even tried to practice it a bit, but still found nothing hidden.

“Could I be overthinking it…”

Han Li muttered to himself, unwilling to give up. A crystal light flashed on his brow, and a vast divine sense shot out, enveloping the jade slip and examining it inch by inch once more.

At that moment, the starlight on the jade slip appeared again, emitting a devouring force that began to absorb his divine sense continuously.

Then, a speck of golden light emerged on the surface of the jade slip.

Han Li was first greatly startled, but then overjoyed. He did not withdraw his divine sense but let the jade slip devour it.

As time passed, his expression gradually turned horrified.

The jade slip was like a bottomless pit, having already devoured nearly one-fifth of his divine sense power and still not satisfied, while the speck of golden light had grown to the size of a broad bean.

His divine sense was now damaged, only about ten percent of its peak, but due to the technique he practiced, it was still comparable to that of an ordinary immortal. Yet this jade slip had devoured so much divine sense power.

Although it would inevitably take considerable time to recover, after a brief consideration, he continued to let it devour.

After a moment, a startling scene occurred!

As the golden light on the jade slip increased and filled the entire slip, it gradually formed a golden pattern of the Big Dipper.

At that moment, the devouring force emitted by the jade slip also suddenly ceased.

Han Li breathed a sigh of relief, overjoyed as he picked up the transformed jade slip and extended his divine sense into it again. His eyes widened.

The content of the jade slip had also changed completely; the original countless yellow characters had disappeared, replaced by large golden script.

“This…” Han Li was stunned and quickly began to read rapidly.

After a full quarter of an hour, he raised his head, his eyes full of joy.

The golden characters in the jade slip recorded a body refinement secret technique called the “Little Big Dipper Star Origin Art.”

According to the information left by the Cold Flame Ancestor, this technique did not originate from the Spirit Huan Realm but was a genuine immortal realm technique, specially obtained by the Ancestor after his ascension and transmitted to the lower realm.

Notably, this method did not rely on spiritual energy of heaven and earth for cultivation, but instead condensed starlight power into the body to temper the physical form.

The entire technique was divided into seven layers. Each layer mastered would condense one mysterious aperture; upon completing all seven layers, one would condense seven major mysterious apertures, achieve the True Ultimate Body, and cultivate to become the legendary Mystic Immortal.

His Nascent Soul had now mutated, making it impossible to cultivate using spiritual energy of heaven and earth, but starlight power might be worth a try.

However, the Cold Flame Ancestor specifically pointed out at the end that tempering the body with starlight power would subject one to immense pain from the starlight piercing the body at all times.

Moreover, this technique was not orthodox; it could greatly strengthen the physical body but could not be used to increase magical power and cultivation. Those not seeking to survive by risking death should not delude themselves into practicing it, as cultivation would only lead to the far more difficult path of the Mystic Immortal compared to ordinary immortals.

Most importantly, practicing this technique required not only a certain level of physical strength as a foundation but also a powerful divine sense to guide the starlight power into the body. Hence, those with insufficient divine sense could not practice it either.

When the Cold Flame Ancestor originally transmitted this technique from the immortal realm, he set a special restriction on the jade slip, so that only those with sufficient divine sense could break it and see the Little Big Dipper Star Origin Art.

Han Li gripped the jade slip tightly, feeling a slight excitement, as if he had found a way out of the darkness.

This Little Big Dipper Star Origin Art seemed tailor-made for him. Although the jade slip said it would be extremely painful to practice, he did not hesitate at all.

But at that moment, the jade slip in his hand suddenly shattered, turning into a ball of dazzling golden light.

Seeing this, Han Li's pupils contracted, and he looked up.

The golden light hovered in midair, twisted slightly, and transformed into a golden figure—a sturdy middle-aged man with a square face and a slight stubble on his cheeks, exuding an air of dignity.

Han Li was startled; he had seen a portrait of this man in the sect—it was the Cold Flame Ancestor!

“Good! Good! Good! My efforts have not been in vain; finally someone has broken this restriction! Which peak’s disciple are you? What is your name?” The Cold Flame Ancestor looked at Han Li and asked with a smile.

“I…” Han Li’s mind raced, planning to fudge an answer.

The figure before him was clearly a clone formed from the Ancestor’s divine sense, but it gave him a considerable sense of pressure, likely possessing formidable combat power.

“Eh!” The Cold Flame Ancestor suddenly let out a soft exclamation, interrupting Han Li, and looked him up and down. His gaze suddenly turned cold as he asked:

“Why is there no trace of our sect’s techniques on you? Could it be that you are not a core inner disciple?” The Cold Flame Ancestor’s eyes grew colder as he asked.

“Reporting to the Ancestor, I am a guest elder who recently joined the sect and have not yet had time to practice any sect techniques.” Han Li frowned inwardly but quickly replied outwardly.

“A guest elder? How would an outer elder come to possess the jade slip of the Little Big Dipper Star Origin Art?” The Cold Flame Ancestor demanded coldly.

Han Li was momentarily at a loss for words.

The Cold Flame Ancestor’s gaze shifted to Han Li’s feet.

There lay a pile of crystalline powder.

Seeing this, Han Li’s expression remained calm, but inwardly he cried out in alarm.