Chapter 696: Taking Stock

Han Li gazed at the six full moons half-hidden among the thick clouds in the sky. With a thought, he reached into his robe and took out the small bottle, placing it on the ground before him, waiting for the moonlight to fall upon it.

However, after waiting for a long time, the bottle showed no reaction at all.

Seeing this, Han Li frowned slightly, then looked up at the sky again. He shook his head with a helpless smile and put the bottle away.

Although six full moons hung in the sky here, they were obscured by thick clouds, and the moonlight could not directly shine down, naturally unable to trigger the mysterious changes in the bottle to condense the green liquid.

After rehanging the bottle on his chest, he glanced around, then slightly raised his right middle and index fingers. The flower pattern on his knuckles flashed with light, and a silver light gate about ten feet tall silently materialized before him.

As soon as the silver light gate opened, bright light streamed out, carrying rich celestial spiritual energy that appeared as a faint green glow, completely different from the surrounding gray tones.

Han Li stepped through the gate, and his figure directly appeared inside the bamboo building behind the Golden Lotus Pond.

At that moment, Mo Guang stood at the stairway leading to the second floor, seemingly waiting for Han Li's arrival.

“Speak. What is it this time that you suddenly sought me out for?” Han Li asked coldly.

“Fellow Daoist Han, the reason I contacted you to meet is that there is something I wish to discuss with you,” Mo Guang said, approaching with a full smile as soon as he saw Han Li appear.

“You want to leave the cave heaven and go outside, don’t you? I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed. The situation outside is complicated right now, and it’s not suitable for you to act outside,” Han Li said indifferently, his expression unchanged.

“Fellow Daoist Han probably doesn’t know where he is right now, does he?” Mo Guang said with an awkward smile, then continued.

Han Li frowned slightly, but showed no sign of confusion on his face.

“So you already have a guess? That’s right, this place is indeed the Gray Realm,” Mo Guang said, slightly startled by Han Li’s reaction, then added.

“It seems Fellow Daoist Mo Guang is quite familiar with the Gray Realm?” Han Li asked, his eyes flickering.

“Haha, you jest, Fellow Daoist Han. The Gray Realm has always been a forbidden zone difficult for the various immortal domains to set foot in, and the information available is very limited. Who would dare claim to be familiar with the Gray Realm? I only heard some news about the Gray Realm when I followed Ma Liang,” Mo Guang said with a laugh, as if nothing had happened.

“What exactly do you want to say, Fellow Daoist Mo Guang? I don’t have much time,” Han Li said noncommittally, then asked.

“Fellow Daoist Han has long been troubled by the decay tribulation. Walking in this Gray Realm, you are constantly eroded by baleful qi, which must be unpleasant. So I thought that moving about outside in this Gray Immortal body might help you avoid some unnecessary troubles,” Mo Guang said with a smile.

“You are thoughtful, but for now I can still manage a bit. No need to trouble yourself,” Han Li said, also showing a slight smile.

Mo Guang was about to argue when he heard Han Li continue:

“Don’t worry. When the time is right or when I need your help, I will call on you. For now, the situation outside is unclear, so it’s safer for you to stay here. Also, if you have a way to return to the Immortal Realm, you should inform me as soon as possible.”

Blocked by Han Li’s words, Mo Guang no longer pressed to go outside. He only said that he had no clue about returning to the Immortal Realm, then took his leave and returned to the second floor.

Han Li watched Mo Guang’s figure leave, but did not rush to return. Instead, he glanced at the Gray Immortal corpse he had thrown into the bamboo building earlier, then turned and entered a meditation room on the first floor.

Once inside, he waved his hand to set up a formation to conceal his aura, then sat cross-legged on the couch.

Mo Guang had already sat down again on the second floor. Sensing this, his gaze darkened slightly, but he continued to close his eyes and regulate his breathing.

Han Li had gained quite a bit from the previous trip to the True Word Sect ruins. Besides several time-attribute techniques including the True Word Wheel Sutra, he had obtained the storage bracelets of Ren Hao and Gongshu Tian, as well as the storage items of the Gray Immortal named Fang Jin.

Now that he had some rare free time, it was a good opportunity to take stock.

He first took out Ren Hao’s blue storage ring. After a brief refinement, he opened it.

With a flash of light, a small pile of sparkling immortal essence stones appeared before Han Li. A smile curled at the corner of his mouth, and with a sweep of his hand, he unceremoniously stored them into his own storage bracelet.

Then, he took out a large pile of bottles and jars from the storage bracelet. After examining them one by one, he found they were all pills for improving cultivation and healing injuries. Among them, one called “Left Dragon Pill” was suitable even for mid-Taiyi cultivators and was extremely valuable, while the rest were quite ordinary.

Of course, “ordinary” here was relative to Han Li, who consumed all kinds of immortal pills like beans. For other ordinary Golden Immortals, these were all rare high-grade pills; releasing even one would cause a scramble.

Apart from pills, the storage ring also contained many water-attribute materials. Some scale-like items seemed similar to the blue battle armor Ren Hao had worn, likely materials for repairing the armor.

Among them, a head-sized water-blue crystal was most conspicuous. It was covered with dense water wave patterns and contained strong water-attribute law fluctuations, clearly a water-attribute law object.

Beyond that, Ren Hao’s storage ring only contained some water-attribute magic treasures. The highest-grade among them were the blue giant sword and the dragon-phase battle armor, but both were already completely destroyed.

However, Han Li was not without gains. Among those treasures, he immediately spotted a dragon-eye-sized crimson orb engraved with nine different flame patterns. It was the “Nine Annihilation Flowing Flame Pearl” that Ren Hao had used to ambush him!

This treasure was extremely powerful. If Han Li had not cultivated a time-attribute technique, he would not have been able to avoid it.

Han Li happily held it in his hands, examined it carefully for a moment, then carefully put it away, thinking that after some refinement, he could use it as a hidden weapon to ambush opponents.

After finishing with Ren Hao’s storage bracelet, Han Li took out Gongshu Tian’s fiery red storage bracelet.

With a flash of red light, the ground, which had just been cleared, was once again filled to the brim.

A mountain-like pile of immortal essence stones, so many that even Han Li was astonished—no less than what he had obtained from Gongshu Jiu back then. Among them, over twenty stones with full and strong spiritual power were all mid-grade immortal essence stones.

Han Li nodded, thinking that his purse had finally regained its strength and was bulging again.

He set aside all the mid-grade immortal essence stones separately, stored the rest with the previous ones, and continued to examine the rest.

Gongshu Tian also had a considerable number of bottles and jars, all of which were Taiyi-grade pills.

Han Li’s alchemy skills were already considerable, especially after obtaining many Taiyi-grade pills before, so he could identify the uses of most of these pills, with only a few he could not recognize.

These Taiyi-grade pills were somewhat too high-level for him at present. He could force himself to take them, but most of the medicinal power would be wasted, and he understood the principle that too much is as bad as too little.

However, once he broke through to the Taiyi realm, he would not lack pills for a while.

Apart from these, Gongshu Tian’s storage bracelet also contained many books and jade slips, mostly fire-attribute techniques he cultivated and related secret arts, as well as a few maps that looked like maps of immortal domains.

Han Li briefly examined them and found that his main cultivation technique was called the “Great Flame Burning Heaven Art,” a high-level technique that could cultivate fire-attribute law power. It also contained many of his cultivation insights, which were quite valuable.

As for the secret arts, they were too numerous and required fire-attribute law power to perform. Han Li had little interest in them and merely glanced at them before setting them aside.

The jade slip maps, however, surprised Han Li quite a bit. Upon closer inspection, he found that besides maps of the Northern Frost Immortal Domain and several immortal domains of the Four Alliances Region, there were also maps of the Wind Harmony Immortal Domain, the Golden Origin Immortal Domain, and part of the Central Earth Immortal Domain. Although some were not very detailed, they saved him the trouble of collecting them himself.

After categorizing and storing these maps, Han Li’s gaze fell on a few familiar items: a hollow golden disc, a golden token, and a white compass.

The golden token was Gongshu Tian’s supervisory immortal token, the golden disc was used for communication among supervisory envoys, and the white compass was used to sense the aura of the Divine Refining Art. Now that he was in the Gray Realm, he was not worried about being discovered by the Heavenly Court, so he did not destroy them immediately but stored them away.

Gongshu Tian did not carry many spiritual materials. Among them was a golden-bearded ten-leaf flower. When he opened the white jade box containing it, strands of golden light were released, and the light within was as warm as the morning sun, making one feel very comfortable.

If this item were planted in the spirit medicine garden, it would surely benefit the growth of other immortal herbs.

With this thought, Han Li placed it together with the many spiritual flowers and exotic plants he had collected from the True Word Sect.

After putting them away, his gaze fell on a palm-sized spherical silver box. Its surface was engraved with various intricate patterns, very exquisite and detailed. At the seam where the two halves met, a miniature golden talisman was affixed, sealing it tightly so that no aura leaked out.

Han Li examined the golden talisman carefully and found it to be a very high-quality “Fire-Sealing Talisman,” typically used to seal extremely powerful heavenly flames.

From this, it was clear that the contents of the spherical silver box were certainly no ordinary item.