Chapter 95: The Small Bottle Fails

Han Li did not put away the jade slip in his hand but instead placed it beside Luo Meng's remains.

This former ancestral god of Wumeng Island was dead, but he had managed to leave a final message before his great limit arrived. Whether he deliberately withheld it from his clan because there were no Great Vehicle cultivators among them, as a delaying tactic, was impossible to know.

However, at the end of his final message, he also mentioned that if a clansman ever succeeded in crossing the tribulation in the future, they should use the materials he left behind to refine an Earth Deity Incarnation, thereby becoming the new ancestral god of Wumeng Island and continuing to protect future generations.

Though the Great Dao is merciless, this path of cultivating as an earthly immortal based on bloodline faith ultimately carried a bit more attachment and a bit more worldly warmth than ordinary immortal cultivation.

"Fellow Daoist Luo Meng, though I cannot become the new ancestral god of Wumeng Island, I will look after your clansmen as much as I can. Consider these materials as my compensation," Han Li said calmly to the remains.

With that, he withdrew his gaze, picked up one of the remaining three jade slips from the ground, and pressed it to his forehead.

After a moment, the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.

This jade slip contained the method for refining an Earth Deity Incarnation.

This was precisely what he most wanted to understand at the moment.

According to its contents, refining an Earth Deity Incarnation required not only an extremely complex process but also a wide variety of rare materials. The most special and indispensable among them was a spiritual material called "Soul-Birth Flower."

When refining an Earth Deity Incarnation, one must use a complete specimen of this flower as the raw material, extract the Soul-Birth Liquid from it, and add it to the other materials for refining to succeed.

Moreover, the older the flower, the better the refining effect and the higher the intelligence of the incarnation. But it must be at least ten thousand years old; otherwise, it would be impossible to achieve the effect of condensing a split soul. If the flower were over a hundred thousand years old, the soul-condensing effect would be nearly perfect.

The jade slip also described the Soul-Birth Flower: within a hundred years, it had leaves but no flowers; at a hundred years, it bloomed white; after a thousand years, the color turned from white to red; after five thousand years, from red to purple; after eight thousand years, the color deepened and it grew a cockscomb-shaped stamen; after ten thousand years, a golden vein appeared on the petals, and with every additional ten thousand years, another vein would appear. As for changes after a hundred thousand years, perhaps because it was too rare, the jade slip had no record.

Besides refining Earth Deity Incarnations, this flower was also highly beneficial for earthly immortals advancing and breaking through cultivation bottlenecks. However, its cultivation process was extremely difficult. It was said that surviving to over a thousand years was already extremely rare. Thus, in the entire Black Wind Sea market, not to mention ten-thousand-year-old Soul-Birth Flowers, even five-thousand-year-old ones were very rare, essentially unavailable and nowhere to be sought.

The large purple flower not far from Han Li was undoubtedly a Soul-Birth Flower. Judging by its form, it was at least over eight thousand years old. If it were to enter the Black Wind Sea market, it would absolutely be enough to bankrupt an ordinary earthly immortal clan.

As Han Li pondered something, he picked up another jade slip.

The contents of this jade slip were somewhat special. Not only was the language different from usual, but the meanings were also very obscure and profound.

At first, he couldn't make sense of it, but after careful study, he was delighted to discover that it recorded the method for refining faith power.

This included how to take faith power for one's own use, how to convert it into magic power, and how to condense law power.

As for the last remaining jade slip, it recorded some of Luo Meng's daily cultivation insights and his analysis of ancestral god cultivation.

Han Li only skimmed it without studying it carefully, but some of the content caught his attention:

Due to the special geographical location of the Black Wind Sea, where the ocean area far exceeded the land, the natural energy flowing here was naturally richest in water attribute.

Thus, here, condensing and cultivating the Water Law was much easier than other laws. Moreover, with the advantage of the terrain, using the Water Law in battles here was three parts more powerful than other laws, naturally giving the upper hand.

It was also because of this that finding earthly immortal texts related to the Water Law was easier here, which led to a severe shortage of all resources containing Water Law power in the entire Black Wind Sea. Once they appeared, they would be fiercely contested.

After putting away the last three jade slips, Han Li's gaze fell on the storage ring, and he searched through it.

As expected, the contents of the ring were all the materials for refining a water-attribute Earth Deity Incarnation mentioned in the previous jade slips, including the blue crystal used for the statue's head that he had seen before.

Han Li unceremoniously took everything inside, then looked again at the Soul-Birth Flower not far away.

After a moment's hesitation, he stepped forward, took the Heaven Sovereign Vial from his neck, removed the stopper, and carefully dripped a drop of green liquid onto the flower.

This was the drop he had condensed before leaving the Spirit Realm. Since arriving in the Black Wind Sea, he had been focused on breaking free from the chains and had never had a chance to use it, so he had kept this drop until now.

With this vial, accelerating the flower's growth to over ten thousand years was naturally no problem. If time allowed, he even planned to accelerate it to a hundred thousand years.

In the following time, he searched the wooden building and the entire forest but found nothing else special, so he returned to the secret chamber through the spatial passage.

The moment he flew out of the passage, it buzzed and trembled, emitting a large amount of white light, then rapidly shrank and disappeared without a trace.

The white jade token reappeared, its surface shimmering with spiritual light, floating in midair, emitting faint spatial fluctuations.

Han Li reached out, took it into his hand, and stored it in his storage bracelet.

This token seemed to be the key to opening Luo Meng's ancestral god secret realm.

Now that its restrictions had been broken by him, it was equivalent to carrying a cave treasure with him, making many things much more convenient.

Thinking this, Han Li sat cross-legged in the secret chamber, took out the jade slip recording the method for refining an Earth Deity Incarnation, and began to study it.

Time passed little by little. The sky gradually darkened, and a bright full moon hung over Wumeng Island. It was already night.

Han Li, who had been sitting cross-legged in the secret chamber, suddenly rose and, with a flash, appeared outside the courtyard.

He looked up at the huge moon in the sky, took the Heaven Sovereign Vial from his neck, and placed it on the ground.

Before long, streaks of white light fell from the sky, converging on the small bottle, forming white specks. A large white halo appeared around the bottle, quite dazzling.

Seeing this, Han Li's heart stirred.

The Heaven Sovereign Vial's absorption of moonlight in the Immortal Realm was much more intense than in the Spirit Realm. Previously, with sufficient moonlight, it could condense a drop of green liquid in two days. Could it be that now it could condense one in a single day?

Thinking excitedly, Han Li waved his hand and cast a spell.

A flash of green light covered the strange phenomenon around the Heaven Sovereign Vial.

Then he simply sat cross-legged nearby, took out the previous jade slip, and continued studying.

A night passed in the blink of an eye.

When Han Li opened his eyes, waved away the green light, and picked up the Heaven Sovereign Vial, his expression froze slightly.

The bottle cap could not be opened at all, meaning no green liquid had condensed inside.

"Maybe it still takes two days..."

Han Li muttered helplessly, not paying much attention, and continued sitting there with his eyes closed, studying.

Not until nightfall, when the small bottle's absorption of moonlight began again, did he cast a spell to cover the phenomenon.

But when he picked up the Heaven Sovereign Vial again at dawn, his expression turned grim.

Because the small bottle still could not be opened!

"Could it be that the immortal spiritual energy in the Immortal Realm is not as rich as in the Spirit Realm?"

As soon as this absurd thought arose in Han Li's mind, he immediately dismissed it.

That night, he placed the Heaven Sovereign Vial in the courtyard again. This time, instead of closing his eyes to study any jade slip, he stared at the small bottle without blinking the entire time.

The small bottle's absorption of white moonlight showed no change, but by the next morning, the green liquid still had not appeared.

This made Han Li feel a bit anxious.

After all, the reason he had come this far, besides being cautious, was inseparable from the merit of this Heaven Sovereign Vial. If this bottle lost its ability to condense green liquid, he would probably lose his greatest reliance.

For instance, right now, obtaining a ten-thousand-year-old Soul-Birth Flower would likely become a very tricky matter.

However, it was still too early to draw conclusions. After all, this was the True Immortal Realm, different from the Spirit Realm and the Spirit World.

With some hope, he continued trying.

On the fourth day, the green liquid still did not appear.

On the fifth day, it was the same.

The sixth day...

In the blink of an eye, over ten days passed.

At night, the Heaven Sovereign Vial still absorbed white light as before, but the mysterious green liquid showed no sign of appearing.

Inside the secret chamber, Han Li looked at the Heaven Sovereign Vial before him, his expression somewhat gloomy.

Back in the human world, it took at most seven or eight days to condense a drop of green liquid. Now, with twice the time passed, the bottle was still empty. This had never happened before, leaving him somewhat at a loss.

But after thinking it over these past days, he had come up with two possibilities.

First, it might be due to being in the True Immortal Realm.

According to the words of the true immortal Ma Liang who descended to the lower realm, this Heaven Sovereign Vial was an item from a major force called the Nine Element View in the Immortal Realm.

Now that the small bottle had returned to the Immortal Realm, it was possible that some changes had occurred that he could not detect.

Second, it might be due to the battle with the one-eyed giant in the inter-realm gap, where this bottle had absorbed a ray of delayed light containing law power, causing some effect.

Han Li let out a light breath, and his expression gradually calmed.

Although the Heaven Sovereign Vial was his most important treasure, it did not mean he could not survive without it.

Moreover, the current situation of this bottle did not necessarily mean it would never produce green liquid again. At least, every night it still absorbed the white light.

Take it one step at a time.