Chapter 624: Flower Branch

Back in his cave dwelling, Han Li first went to check on Mo Guang. Seeing that he was still in seclusion and nothing unusual had occurred, he returned to the inner chamber, went to the desk, took out paper and brush, and began to draw.

As the brush tip moved lightly, slender lines emerged one after another, gradually forming the blueprint of an octagonal box, which looked quite profound and complex.

After finishing a front view, Han Li glanced at it briefly, set it aside, took out another sheet of white paper, and continued drawing.

Before long, seven or eight blueprints of the box drawn from different angles were all spread flat on the table.

Han Li's gaze swept over these drawings, nodded in satisfaction, and raised two fingers to rub his slightly sore brow.

Soon after, he took out another sheet of white paper and continued to draw the talisman array that Jingyang Shangren had inscribed on the ground earlier.

"Eh, isn't this the 'Octagonal Array Solution'?" Just then, a voice suddenly sounded from behind.

"Fellow Daoist Crab, do you recognize these drawings?" Han Li asked while continuing to draw without stopping.

He didn't need to turn around to know it was the Crab Immortal.

A trace of confusion also flickered in the Crab Immortal's eyes, as if he himself didn't know why he had blurted out that name.

"I don't know why, but it seems that as soon as I saw these patterns, I naturally remembered them," he said after a moment of hesitation.

"Oh, could it be that some of the memories sealed by your former master have suddenly awakened?" Han Li asked upon hearing this.

"I don't know," the Crab Immortal shook his head.

He stepped forward, picked up a few of the previous drawings, examined them carefully for a moment, and then suddenly said, "There's something wrong here. The intersection point of the array lines is twisted by a fraction, which will affect the actual function."

"Do you know how to make this thing?" Han Li's heart leaped with joy, and he quickly asked.

"As long as we have the materials, we can make it," the Crab Immortal said without any hesitation, nodding.

With that, he took the brush from Han Li's hand and began to write stroke by stroke on the white paper.

After a moment, he handed a long list of items to Han Li and said, "Once all these materials are prepared, I can make this Octagonal Key."

"Octagonal Key..."

Han Li murmured, his gaze sweeping over the various materials listed. He thought to himself, no wonder Jingyang Shangren wasn't worried about him learning the Octagonal Array Solution—if he didn't know the material ratios, he couldn't even make the Octagonal Key.

But precisely because of this, Han Li found it increasingly strange: how did the Crab Immortal know all this?

However, judging from the Crab Immortal's earlier expression, he himself seemed to have the same confusion.

"This Octagonal Array Solution seems to be useful only on certain special cave-heaven treasures. May I ask what Fellow Daoist Han intends to unlock?" the Crab Immortal suddenly asked.

Upon hearing this, Han Li pondered for a moment, then turned his hand over and took out the tailbone he had obtained from the giant rat.

As he handed the tailbone to the Crab Immortal, his eyes kept watching the latter's expression and demeanor, hoping to detect any subtle changes.

As a result, the Crab Immortal only furrowed his brows slightly, showed a hint of confusion, and took it.

"Fellow Daoist Crab, do you recognize this thing?" Han Li asked directly.

"If you hadn't mentioned it beforehand, I wouldn't have been able to tell that this object is a cave-heaven treasure," the Crab Immortal said after examining it for a moment, handing it back and shaking his head.

"If I hadn't seen an item with an identical aura at the auction, I wouldn't have discovered it was a cave-heaven treasure either. Once I've prepared these materials, I'll trouble you to help refine it," Han Li said, nodding.

"No problem," the Crab Immortal said.

After that, Han Li inquired further about the materials for the Octagonal Key and then hurried out of the cave dwelling to go to Jukun City again.

...

More than two months later.

On the ground inside Han Li's cave dwelling, a small talisman array had long been inscribed.

The Crab Immortal held an octagonal box in his hands, opened it with a "snap," and placed it upside down in the center of the array.

"Fellow Daoist Han, place that cave-heaven treasure on it..." The Crab Immortal turned to look at Han Li and said.

Han Li turned his wrist, took out the tailbone, and placed it on the inverted box.

"The incantation for the array solution..."

Before Han Li could finish his sentence, the Crab Immortal said, "Knowing only the incantation is not very meaningful; it must be coordinated with the circulation of spiritual power within the body."

"Fellow Daoist Crab, since you say that, you must know how to activate the spell, right?" Han Li said with a smile.

"Leave it to me," the Crab Daoist nodded and said.

With that, the Crab Daoist began to chant silently, his hands forming hand seals and his lips moving continuously. The incantation was exactly the same as what Jingyang Shangren had recited.

After a moment, he pointed with both hands, and a beam of white light flew into the beast bone.

The surface of the tailbone first flashed with an emerald light, then burst into a layer of dazzling silver light that spread over the bone like flowing water, turning the entire tailbone a translucent snowy white.

At the end of the tailbone, a flower pattern the size of a copper coin emerged.

Han Li's heart stirred slightly at the sight.

As he had expected, this giant rat tailbone was indeed the 'Flower Branch,' one of the four cave-heaven treasures 'Flower, Bird, Fish, Insect' refined by the third mountain master of the Hundred Creations Mountain.

"This item has been unsealed. Fellow Daoist Han, you only need to refine it a little, and then you can open it," the Crab Daoist said, picking up the tailbone and handing it back to Han Li.

"Much obliged," Han Li nodded.

After taking the 'Flower Branch,' he examined it for a moment, then sat down cross-legged, placed his hands together with the jade bone between his palms, and began to refine it.

About two hours later, Han Li's eyes suddenly snapped open. He wiped the sweat from his brow and stood up.

His eyes could not hide his delight. He glanced at the Crab Daoist, then gently traced a line on the 'Flower Branch.'

The jade bone trembled with light, becoming ethereal and transparent. The brilliant silver light emanating from it transformed into a door of light about ten feet tall.

"Fellow Daoist Crab, shall we see what wonders lie within this cave-heaven treasure?" Han Li said with a smile.

With that, he stepped forward and entered the silver door of light.

The Crab Daoist stood before the light door, about to step in, when his figure paused slightly for a moment, then returned to normal. He stepped into the light door, and his figure vanished.

Inside the light door, Han Li appeared on a spacious grassy field.

His gaze swept across, and he saw a dense forest at the far end of the grassland, with faint mist rising from it, looking hazy and indistinct.

Han Li did not rush into the forest but first flew along the inner boundary of the cave heaven.

The sky in the cave heaven was not high, only about ten thousand zhang. Above that, a thick spatial barrier blocked further ascent. The edges were similarly bounded, confining the entire cave heaven within a certain range.

After a full circuit, Han Li found that compared to Jingyang Shangren's 'Fish Branch,' the area within this 'Flower Branch' was much larger, but the concentration of spiritual energy was roughly the same.

After the inspection, he flew with the Crab Daoian into the forest.

As soon as he entered the forest, Han Li could clearly feel a faint aura of malevolence lingering within.

On the ground before him was a white path, paved with various strange patterns, winding deep into the forest. The source of the malevolence seemed to originate from this path.

Han Li frowned slightly and bent down to examine it closely.

After looking for a while, he discovered that the white path was not paved with white stone slabs or jade, but with human and animal bones of various sizes and shapes.

"No wonder the giant rat's corpse had such a strong malevolent aura—it even had such a hobby..." Han Li sighed.

Following the bone path inward, the malevolence in the forest began to diminish. On both sides of the path appeared many spiritual flowers and exotic herbs, some of which Han Li recognized, while others he had never seen before. They all seemed to be of considerable age.

Han Li did not rush to identify or collect them. He followed the path all the way inward until he reached a purple bamboo grove covering only a few hundred zhang in area.

Within the grove, purple mist rose and spiritual energy swirled. Vaguely, a two-story pavilion-style building could be seen. There was no trace of malevolence around it; it looked ethereal and quite like a celestial dwelling.

Han Li's eyes flashed with blue light as he carefully examined the purple bamboo grove. Seeing no restrictions inside, he stepped in.

The two entered the bamboo grove and walked a few hundred paces before seeing a fenced courtyard ahead. Pushing open the gate, they saw a small pond in the yard, with purple mist churning and rolling, and in the center grew several purple-gold lotuses.

"It seems the core of this cave-heaven treasure is this pond and these purple-gold lotuses," Han Li said thoughtfully, standing at the edge of the pond.

"Indeed, the foundation of this cave heaven lies here," the Crab Daoist nodded in agreement.

With that, the two crossed a purple bamboo arch bridge over the pond and arrived at the two-story pavilion on the opposite shore.

The pavilion was also built entirely of purple bamboo, its base seemingly planted in the ground, with faint purple roots visible. The exterior shimmered with a hazy purple light, clearly indicating it was protected by restrictions.

"This purple bamboo pavilion is quite interesting. It borrows the power of the purple-gold lotuses in the pond, partially merging with their roots. If we forcibly break the restrictions, the door might open, but it will certainly damage the foundation of this cave heaven," Han Li said, his blue light fading as he turned to the Crab Daoist.

"That's no problem. With a slight modification to the Nine Spirits Absorption Technique, we can open the pavilion's restrictions without harming the purple-gold lotuses," the Crab Daoist said.

"You say it so easily, Fellow Daoist Crab. You must be quite confident. Then may I trouble you once more?" Han Li said with a smile.

The Crab Daoist did not decline. He simply nodded silently and began to activate his techniques to break the restrictions.