Chapter 475: Seeking Death

"Hey, Gold Boy..." Han Li gave a wry smile.

Just as Gold Boy's teeth were about to touch the long blade, he suddenly stopped, lifted his little head, and grinned at Han Li, saying, "You mean what you say?"

"Of course."

Han Li was taken aback, then nodded.

A hint of pride appeared on Gold Boy's face, and he released the purple long blade from his small hand.

Han Li shook his head, waved his hand, and put away the long blade, the golden silk net, and the white archway, planning to examine them slowly after leaving this place.

"Eh, this is..."

Han Li suddenly reached out and grabbed something—a silver spirit bamboo several zhang long, emitting astonishing spiritual power fluctuations.

The aura of this silver bamboo was exactly the same as the silver bamboo root he had dug up from the medicine garden.

Beside the silver bamboo were some precious spirit herbs, which looked freshly picked.

Han Li's eyes flickered. It seemed that the person who had arrived at the medicine garden first and taken the Profound Heaven Treasure was indeed Qu Ling.

The Profound Heaven Treasure from the Profound Heaven Spirit Vine must have been that emerald green gourd.

Half a day passed in the blink of an eye, and all the items scattered on the hall floor had been collected.

Han Li's eyes were full of joy.

The number of treasures on Qu Ling's person far exceeded his expectations.

Not to mention various precious materials and spirit herbs, there were over a hundred thousand immortal essence stones alone—an enormous fortune that probably rivaled the accumulated wealth of many sects over many years.

In addition, there were many precious pills, both known and unknown, as well as various scriptures.

However, most of the low-grade spiritual treasures found on Qu Ling had gone into Gold Boy's stomach.

Gold Boy had now fully recovered his aura, his arms had returned to normal, and he looked completely satisfied, with his aura having improved considerably compared to before.

This was naturally the result of Han Li's tacit consent.

Even after evolving into its current form, the Devouring Gold Immortal had not shed its gluttonous habit, but this also served as a unique way to enhance its cultivation. While it pained Han Li, he also felt some relief, as it was good for Gold Boy to have more means of self-protection.

"You two have worked hard today." Han Li put away the items on the ground, turned to look at Mo Guang and the other, who stood with hands at their sides, and nodded.

"We share the same fate, so why say such things? If you need anything in the future, just command us." Mo Guang smiled, then a black light flashed on his body, and he once again merged into Han Li's shadow.

Han Li raised an eyebrow slightly. Mo Guang's behavior this time seemed quite different from before.

Crab Daoist, without a word, cupped his hands toward Han Li, then twisted his body into a beam of golden light that vanished into Han Li's body.

Han Li straightened his clothes, stepped out of the hall, looked around for a moment, then suddenly lowered his head to look at his hands.

In his hands, he held a blue scroll—a Map of the Nether Cold Mountains and Rivers, which he had found in Qu Ling's storage device.

But now the blue light on the scroll's surface had completely disappeared, making it look like an ordinary painting, without a trace of its former spirituality.

Han Li frowned slightly, glanced at the scroll twice more, then quickly flipped his hand and put it away.

"Let's go."

Han Li said to Gold Boy, who was following behind, then waved his hand to emit a green light that lifted both of them and shot forward.

...

Somewhere in the Nether Cold Immortal Mansion.

In a severely damaged palace ruin, three alien men and women, wearing vests and short shirts with black scarves wrapped around their heads, walked along a bluestone street overgrown with weeds. Their faces were gloomy, and their brows were full of exhaustion.

"This time, we really fell for Jiao San's trick. Following him into this immortal mansion secret realm, we found few treasures but faced danger after danger. I think he just tricked us into being cannon fodder," said a short, dark-skinned woman indignantly.

"Isn't that right? When we were charging through the Mingwang Hall earlier, you all saw how fast he ran! He didn't care whether we lived or died. Now he's nowhere to be seen," added a burly man with thick eyebrows.

"It's useless to talk about it now. Fortunately, the three of us haven't split up. I think we don't need to look for Jiao San anymore. Let's find our own opportunities and leave this place safely when the time comes," said the remaining lean old man, stroking his sparse goatee slowly.

The other two nodded in agreement.

As they were speaking, a jade flying carriage suddenly streaked across the high sky, arcing around and hovering above and before the three.

On the narrow carriage stood a middle-aged man with a slender build and refined features, idly toying with a small white jade pixiu that had a faint yellow tint and a warm, glossy sheen.

Behind him stood two golden-armored men, their faces wooden and lifeless, clearly puppets.

The three glanced at the man on the carriage, a flicker of wariness deep in their pupils, but seeing he was only a late-stage True Immortal, they relaxed slightly.

"May I ask, fellow Daoists, have you seen anyone from the North Han Immortal Palace? Or do you know where they are now?" the middle-aged man asked with a warm smile, his demeanor composed.

None of the three spoke, but they found it somewhat strange.

This man before them, though not high in cultivation, spoke in a calm tone that nonetheless gave them a sense of superiority, which was quite irritating.

"We haven't seen them," the gaunt old man replied, his eyes flickering.

No one who entered the Ming Han Immortal Mansion was foolish; they wouldn't judge a person's true strength solely by their apparent cultivation realm. The three old men were more wary of this sudden intruder.

More importantly, they hadn't seen this person when entering the mansion, so they assumed he had used some means to alter his appearance.

"Sorry for the intrusion," the middle-aged man said flatly, then turned and drove the carriage into the sky.

Watching his retreating figure, the thick-browed man looked at the old man and asked, "What do you think?"

"He doesn't seem ordinary, but my spiritual eye technique couldn't see through him. He should indeed be a late-stage True Immortal," the gaunt old man said slowly, stroking his beard habitually.

"If I'm not mistaken, that carriage he's riding is a fine treasure," the dark-skinned woman suddenly said.

At her words, the thick-browed man and the gaunt old man exchanged a knowing smile.

"Leave the storage artifacts aside; I want that jade in his hand," the thick-browed man chuckled.

"Then his robe is mine," the gaunt old man said, releasing his beard and speaking solemnly.

In the end, the three couldn't resist their greed and decided to rely on their numbers to kill and rob him.

Several dozen miles away, the flying carriage drifted slowly through the sky.

The middle-aged man stood on it, still smiling warmly, rubbing the jade pixiu in his hand and muttering, "Cultivation is not easy, why bother..."

As his words fell, three streaks of light flashed and blocked his path.

"What? Have you remembered where the Immortal Palace people are? Please tell me, and I'll be most grateful," the middle-aged man said, grinning at the three.

The gaunt old man, seeing the smile on the middle-aged man's face, inexplicably felt a pang of fear and resolved to flee immediately if things went wrong, abandoning the other two.

The thick-browed man and the dark-skinned woman exchanged a glance, and lights flickered in their hands as they produced a black stone axe and a silver longsword respectively.

The gaunt old man directly took out a seven-story golden pagoda, which emitted a golden light barrier that expanded a thousandfold, enveloping the three of them and the middle-aged man.

"Something that doesn't even qualify as a pseudo-spirit domain, and you dare to show it off?" The middle-aged man's expression suddenly turned cold, and his hand gripping the jade pixiu clenched abruptly.

The three were startled, and before they could understand the situation, they felt a tremendous force pressing in from all directions.

The light barrier from the seven-story golden pagoda shattered with a bang!

Then they saw their limbs and torsos, under the pressure of this force, breaking inch by inch and squeezing toward their necks, flesh and blood mangled, bones exposed.

Their heads remained intact, but their bodies had become a bloody, bony mass.

All this happened in an instant!

Three golden lights shot up as their nascent souls fled in panic, each darting in a different direction.

Seeing this, the middle-aged man casually turned his hand in the void, and a faint, translucent giant hand materialized, pulling the sky into ripples and grabbing the three nascent souls back.

"Spare us, spare us! We failed to recognize your greatness..." the three nascent souls struggled and begged pitifully.

The middle-aged man ignored them, his eyes glowing with a strange light as he gazed at the three golden figures.

"You weren't lying earlier; you really don't know. But there are some unexpected gains..." After a moment, he muttered, and with a flicker of spiritual light from his fingertip, he ground the three nascent souls into ashes.

He casually scattered a handful of golden powder from the sky, which dissipated into the air.

Then, with a wave of his hand, three beams of green light rose from the miserable corpses—a deer, an owl, and an ape—three masks peeled from their heads and flew into his hand.

He examined the three masks, then waved his hand, and a large multi-tiered wooden rack appeared in the void before him, filled with a dazzling array of masks from the Wuchang Alliance—ox-headed and horse-faced, dragons, tigers, phoenixes, turtles, all kinds.

Counting them, there were over a thousand in total!