Chapter 988 Fusion

Although he possessed such uniquely favorable cultivation conditions, Han Li still found it difficult to continue his cultivation while comprehending the third statue.

This was because the cultivation method of the third statue had changed, being completely different from before.

It required him to simultaneously circulate the power of the stars to impact the acupoints while using blood and qi power as support, causing his physical body to undergo a transformation similar to demonic transformation, growing three heads and six arms.

This method demanded extremely high blood and qi power; otherwise, it would be impossible to simultaneously generate three heads and six arms.

Although Han Li's current blood and qi power was strong, it still fell short of such a transformation.

After a moment, he remained seated, his mind unusually not continuing to ponder the matter of true spirit bloodlines.

A slight smile curled at the corners of his mouth. He reached into his bosom, fumbled for a while, and took out the half piece of jade pendant that Zi Ling had given him. Holding it in his hands, he examined it carefully.

The jade pendant slowly rotated in his hand, casting a green glow that revealed a blurry figure within. Han Li stared at it, a strange feeling arising in his heart.

"Why did Zi Ling give me this? It seems nothing out of the ordinary, but the figure inside does resemble me a bit. Could it be something she used to remember me by in the past?" Han Li murmured.

Even his sunken eyes showed a hint of amusement.

He lifted the pendant by its string and gently rubbed his fingers, causing it to spin rapidly in the air. The afterimages it left behind merged into one, looking like a green sphere.

Within that green sphere, a rather three-dimensional figure image also emerged.

Seeing this, Han Li's expression suddenly changed. He was stunned for a moment, then murmured, "Perhaps it's possible, perhaps it's possible..."

With that, he took out the four statues again, placed them before him, and carefully examined them.

The third statue of the Heavenly Fiend Prison Suppression Art mentioned using blood and qi power to transform the physical body. Han Li could not achieve this with his own blood and qi power alone, but if he switched to a true spirit bloodline, it might not be impossible.

This was like the half piece of jade pendant and the figure's profile within it—they did not necessarily have to be distinguished as separate; if they were integrated and operated simultaneously, perhaps both could be achieved?

However, before this, Han Li still had some concerns.

After all, the previous instances of true spirit bloodline backlash were more or less related to the operation of the Heavenly Fiend Prison Suppression Art. If he were to operate both simultaneously now, would it trigger an even more violent backlash from the true spirit bloodline? Han Li was not entirely sure.

After much deliberation, he still decided to give it a try. The backlash of the true spirit bloodline had now reached a critical juncture and could no longer be delayed.

Once a decision was made, Han Li acted without hesitation.

Holding the third statue in his hands, a crystalline beam shot from between his brows into it, and the statue began to move.

Han Li was already thoroughly familiar with all the movements of this statue. This time, he paid more attention to the mysterious script on its back, carefully reviewing the method described there for altering the physical form using blood and qi power.

After confirming there were no errors, he began to move according to the statue's actions.

As his movements changed, over nine hundred acupoints on his body lit up one after another.

At the same time, Han Li silently began to circulate the true spirit bloodline within him.

After a moment, a trace of heat spread from the tip of his heart.

Han Li was very familiar with this—it was the precursor to the true spirit bloodline backlash. Soon, the blood in his body would rapidly heat up, becoming like boiling water.

He composed his mind, striving to remain calm. Unlike before, he no longer tried to soothe the restless blood with the methods of the Star Origin Blood Refining Art. Instead, he began to guide the true spirit bloodline along the path recorded in the third statue, converging it toward his shoulders and back.

He had not expected that, once attempted, the true spirit bloodline would surge like floodwaters bursting through a sluice gate, rushing toward his head.

Han Li immediately felt a tearing pain in his shoulders and neck, and the muscles there bulged, giving him the sensation that flesh was actually growing.

Accompanying this was a sharp, piercing pain in his sea of consciousness. The unbearable agony felt as if a powerful tearing force was trying to rip his divine sense apart.

And the rampaging true spirit bloodline was the source of this force.

"Ah..."

The tearing pain simultaneously assailing his sea of consciousness and physical body made even Han Li, who had endured all kinds of suffering, find it hard to bear, and he could not help but let out hoarse roars.

What he found somewhat strange was that his divine sense was unexpectedly clear at this moment, not on the verge of being lost as before. Yet precisely because of this, the tearing pain was doubly distinct.

Nevertheless, this confirmed that the method he had thought of was indeed feasible.

After the cries of pain, Han Li clenched his teeth and focused all his attention on cultivating the "Heavenly Fiend Prison Suppression Art."

……

Cultivating underground, he lost track of time, and in a blink, another five hundred years had passed.

In a side hall of the crystal palace, layers of blood-red light flickered like the halo of a Buddha.

Within the blood light, a strange man over ten zhang tall, with three heads and six arms, sat cross-legged on a lotus platform, waving his six arms as he repeatedly made various strange gestures.

On his shoulders were three heads, none of which were human in form.

The middle head was that of a golden ape with glaring eyes like an angry vajra, the left head was a majestic true dragon, and the right head had golden pupils like lightning, with an eagle's beak and feathers—a giant bird's head.

After a bout of movements, the strange man suddenly brought his six arms together in a gesture of prayer before his chest.

The blood-red halo enveloping him slowly receded, and his figure gradually shrank within the blood light. When all the light faded, a bare-chested young man emerged, none other than Han Li.

He exhaled a long breath of turbid air, slowly opened his eyes, twisted his neck left and right, and a smile appeared on his face.

Ever since he discovered that true spirit bloodlines could be integrated into the Heavenly Fiend Celestial Suppression Art, he had been practicing tirelessly. Over the years, although the number of his acupoints had not changed much, still over nine hundred, his physique had undergone a tremendous transformation.

What gratified him most was that he had now half-resolved the issue of bloodline backlash; the demon-like state he had just manifested was the result.

Now, when he activated the techniques recorded on the third statue of the Heavenly Fiend Celestial Suppression Art, he could simultaneously draw on the bloodlines of the Mountain Ape, True Dragon, and Roc, and when he assumed the three-headed, six-armed form, he possessed the immense power of three true spirits at once, far surpassing his previous strength.

For the time being, the threat of backlash from these three true spirit bloodlines had been completely resolved, and the remaining true spirit bloodlines could be dealt with in the same way in the future.

According to Han Li's speculation, when he completed the cultivation of all the Heavenly Fiend Celestial Suppression Art techniques, he would develop four different three-headed, six-armed forms, corresponding to the four statues, and each form's heads would take the shape of three true spirits.

However, there was a certain randomness in this process, and the final outcome was still unclear.

After resting for a while, Han Li was about to get up when he suddenly felt the entire crystal palace begin to tremble violently. In the seclusion hall where he was, all the patterns on the walls and floor lit up without being activated.

His expression changed slightly at first, then he raised an eyebrow, and with a flicker of his form, he dashed out of the hall.

When Han Li arrived at the main hall where the Crab Immortal was, he saw the Crab Immortal floating out of the crystal coffin, enveloped in a layer of substantial white light.

All over his body, acupoint light spots flickered, densely packed like stars in the sky, even more numerous than those on E Kuai's body.

Han Li swept his gaze and quickly identified the number of apertures on the Crab Immortal's body—a full one thousand eight hundred!

The Crab Immortal's body hovered in midair for a moment, and as starlight flickered around him, he exuded an aura that overpowered heaven and earth, several times stronger than before.

Even with Han Li's strength, he could not withstand this pressure; standing outside the hall, he was unable to step inside, and his heart was filled with alarm.

"This aura... Could it be that Fellow Daoist Crab has reached the level of a Dao Ancestor?"

"Eh... What is this?" Han Li then showed a flicker of surprise on his face again.

Because inside the crystal coffin, there was now clearly a figure lying, identical to the Crab Immortal, but entirely golden in color, with eyes closed as if in slumber.

"Two Fellow Daoist Crabs? No, this is not a person." He quickly discerned that what lay in the coffin was actually a golden puppet.

However, Han Li keenly sensed that the puppet's aura was somewhat peculiar; it was not a simple puppet, as something seemed sealed within it.

The Crab Immortal, suspended in midair, slowly opened his eyes, shooting out two dazzling beams of golden light, majestic and imposing.

The golden light then rapidly spread outward, enveloping the entire Crab Immortal, filling the entire hall, and even covering Han Li outside.

Han Li's face lit up with joy. Bathed in this golden light, the oppressive force of the nearby void rapidly disappeared, and his immortal spiritual power could circulate normally, just like during his battle with E Kuai.

He immediately activated his immortal spiritual power, breaking through the restrictions of the Flower Branch Space, allowing his divine sense to probe inside and check on Ti Hun's condition.

Ti Hun appeared the same as before, with no change, which relieved him.

Meanwhile, the Crab Immortal, his entire body shrouded in golden light, his figure somewhat blurred, looked up toward the sky, then flickered and vanished.

The next moment, his figure appeared out of thin air in the sky above the Thousand Mechanisms Hall.

The golden light on the Crab Immortal grew even brighter, like a golden sun shining in all directions.

Hei Da and Hei Er, who were ordered to guard outside the hall, saw this and were greatly astonished.

Before the two could react, they felt their bodies enveloped by the golden light, and the spatial pressure around them suddenly vanished completely, allowing the demonic qi within them to flow freely.

However, the two had been in the Scale Abyss for too long, and a large amount of their demonic qi had dissipated, leaving less than a tenth, so the sensation was not strong.