Chapter 1423: Hard Training

A flash of white light, and the jade bottle mysteriously appeared beneath the hole. The silver liquid instantly transformed into a fine silver thread, dripping directly into the bottle's opening. An eerie sight unfolded: as the silver liquid flowed out, the young toad's body withered and shrunk.

Only a small amount of silver liquid flowed from the corpse, draining completely in mere moments, yet the body shrunk by more than half. Han Li's eyebrow twitched; he opened his mouth, and a silver fireball immediately shot out, striking the corpse.

Han Li, leveraging the extreme Yin and Yang power of his Spirit Devouring Heavenly Fire, effortlessly refined all the remaining blood hidden within the young toad's body. With a flick of his long sleeve, a stream of green light swept forth.

After a flash of green light, the radiant mist gathered all the liquid droplets, forming a fist-sized ball of silver essence. This ball was then fully enveloped and sent into the jade bottle.

Han Li could not synthesize the True Toad Beast's spirit blood himself, so naturally, he was unwilling to waste even a single drop.

In this manner, Han Li processed all the Azure-Eyed True Toad corpses, one after another, filling several jade bottles with the legendary True Toad blood. Only then did he exhale, finally feeling at ease.

With the True Toad blood extracted, Han Li was not in a hurry to refine the True Toad Liquid. Instead, he first needed to cultivate his spiritual power to the peak of the Soul Transformation mid-stage and break through that realm's bottleneck. Speaking of which, his choice to pursue both spiritual and physical cultivation paths seemed to have been the right one.

With his formidable physique and ample supply of elixirs, a realm that might take other cultivators centuries to reach could perhaps be easily attained by him within a century, or even just a few decades. The only challenge would be breaking through the bottlenecks, which would likely consume more time.

Therefore, Han Li released several giant ape puppets. Then, touching his head, he sent out his second Nascent Soul, tasking it with managing all matters within the cave mansion, including the cultivation of resources. He then closed the secret chamber door and focused solely on his cultivation inside.

With a sufficient supply of elixirs, coupled with the continuous consumption of spirit fruits like the Dragon Scale Fruit, and aided by marvelous techniques such as the Bone Tempering Art, Han Li's magic power grew exceptionally dense day by day, and his physique also strengthened with each passing day.

During this period, besides diligently cultivating the Brahma Saint True Devil Art, he also began, after integrating his hands with the Primordial Magnetic Divine Mountain and the Five-Children Concentric Devils, to melt the seventy-two Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords, one by one, into the bones of various critical points throughout his body, following the Hundred Meridians Artifact Refining Art.

If he could truly succeed in this refinement, then combined with the power of the Brahma Saint True Devil Art, the defensive strength of these vital points would undoubtedly reach an astonishing level. Even a direct blow from a Void Refinement cultivator could likely be withstood by his physical body without any issue.

Of course, this process was vastly different from refining his hands; the refinement of bones in vital body parts would naturally be far more complex, and the time required would be considerable.

Consequently, the door to Han Li's secret chamber remained tightly shut thereafter. Only every few years would his second Nascent Soul transform into a phantom, phasing directly through the wall to enter and exit, providing Han Li with spirit herbs and fruits. Months turned into years, and in the blink of an eye, sixty years had passed.

One day, on a small mountain about ten li away from the large mountain where Han Li's cave mansion was located, two wisps of black and yellow demonic energy faintly appeared, concealed on the mountaintop. Faint voices emanated from within, as if demonic beasts were conversing. Within the black energy, two silver eyes blinked continuously, while in the yellow energy, a single reddish-crimson eye gleamed. The two demonic beasts seemed to have seen through the concealing illusion array Han Li had set up outside his cave mansion's entrance, continuously peering at it.

However, the two demonic beasts also seemed greatly wary of Han Li's cave mansion. They did not immediately take action; instead, after a short conversation, they dispersed.

Three days later, several more clumps of demonic energy gathered in the air outside Han Li's cave mansion. This time, the demonic beasts did not conceal their forms; instead, they brazenly stirred up a demonic wind. On the ground, thousands of various fierce beasts and strange insects appeared, aggressively gathering together and launching a blatant assault on Han Li's cave mansion.

The demonic beasts that manifested in the air were all varied in form. One was a three-headed giant green-patterned python, with one large head and two smaller ones, looking exceptionally ferocious. Another was a gigantic wild boar, six or seven zhang in size, with a pair of huge, shimmering silver tusks that looked as if they were forged from pure silver. The last two demonic beasts were somewhat similar to two Han Li had seen during the beast tide battle that day: one was a golden-furred giant ape, several zhang tall and gleaming brightly all over, holding a pitch-black trident in one hand; the other was a small, strange beast with a lion's body and an ox's head, only a few feet long, but its entire body was dripping green as if carved from jade.

If Han Li had been present, he would have instantly recognized that these demonic beasts were precisely the Level Six and Seven beasts he had once detected in the nearby mountain range.

Among these demonic beasts, the ox-headed monster was the strongest, having already reached the peak of Level Seven and being just one step away from advancing to the rank of shapeshifting demonic beasts. For unknown reasons, these demonic beasts had gathered together and come to attack his cave mansion.

However, even though Han Li was currently in secluded cultivation and paid no heed to anything outside, the restrictions he, a Soul Transformation cultivator, had set up were not something these mid-level demonic beasts—who had cultivated divine abilities merely by instinct—could break.

Under the urging of the demonic beasts in the air, the horde of beasts and venomous insects fiercely broke through the outermost illusion array, only to immediately trigger the defensive array Han Li had set up.

Suddenly, a green radiant mist surged forth from the opposite side, and a fierce gale erupted. Not merely stirring up sand and stones, hundreds of massive boulders whistled through the air from within the wind. After a rumbling, earth-shaking commotion, some of the fierce beasts were instantly crushed into pulp.

The beast horde immediately fell into great disarray, with some simply wanting to retreat and flee.

However, seeing this, the four demonic beasts in the air suddenly opened their mouths and let out long, piercing shrieks. The beast horde below, upon hearing it, immediately felt their bones soften and muscles slacken, each trembling in fear. The other three demonic beasts also bared their fangs and emitted threatening sounds. Left with no choice, the beast horde turned back and could only brace themselves to charge again towards the green radiant mist.

As a result, after another fierce gale erupted, no giant rocks flew out from within. Instead, countless green wind blades, whistling shrilly, shot forth, so dense that they were utterly unavoidable.

Immediately, thousands of demonic beasts let out a chorus of wails and howls, their heads rolling off or their bodies instantly sliced into seven or eight pieces. By the time the gale subsided again, fewer than a few hundred beasts remained alive. Although these wild beasts had not yet developed intelligence, they were all terrified out of their wits, unable to even stand steadily in place. Unable to control themselves any longer, they turned and fled in all directions. Seeing this, the few demonic beasts above couldn't help but exchange bewildered glances.

Suddenly, the ox-headed demonic beast opened its mouth and, to their surprise, let out some exceptionally pleasant female voices. The voices were remarkably clear, but were not any language known to either humans or demonic races. The other three demonic beasts also conversed in the same language.

A moment later, they seemed to have finished their discussion. The four demonic beasts then ignored the fleeing animals, each stirring up a demonic wind as they rolled downwards. Midway, they suddenly merged into one, transforming into a raging hurricane that fiercely charged, aiming to collide with Han Li's cave mansion. These demonic beasts actually intended to rely on brute force to break through the array Han Li had set up.

If these demonic beasts were all at Level Eight or above in strength, there might have been some possibility. However, how could beings of mere Level Six or Seven strength shake the restrictions set up by Han Li, a Soul Transformation cultivator, even slightly?

Immediately, the color of the radiant mist in front of the cave mansion abruptly changed, transforming into a five-colored form of its own accord. It surged forth unapologetically to meet the attack. As soon as the black hurricane made contact with the five-colored radiant mist, it was instantly shattered amidst the shimmering interplay of lights.

Instantly, the black hurricane shattered into pieces. The four demonic beasts immediately scattered and fled, then re-gathered in the air, looking down, each with a look of astonishment.

Although they had not directly confronted the five-colored radiant mist, the terrifying aura it contained made all these demonic beasts tremble with fear. Immediately after a few more whispered discussions, they transformed back into clumps of demonic wind and retreated.

From then on, not only did no demonic beasts approach Han Li's cave mansion again, but within a hundred-li radius of the huge mountain where the cave mansion was located, not a single bird or beast was seen. From beginning to end, Han Li's cave mansion door remained closed, showing no sign of opening. Time passed quickly; in a flash, another thirty years had gone by.

Suddenly, a long howl like a dragon's roar emanated from the secret chamber door, followed by a rumbling sound as the door suddenly burst open.

Looking from outside the door, a dazzling golden halo of light shone blindingly in the middle of the secret chamber. Han Li was conspicuously seated within it, and behind him, a golden phantom with three heads and six arms appeared.

This phantom was also within the golden halo. Its face was still indistinct, but it was noticeably much more solid than before. It sat cross-legged, just like Han Li, while its six arms each formed a different hand seal.

Suddenly, both Han Li and the golden phantom dharma idol trembled. A shimmering golden ripple instantly emanated from the halo, sweeping across the nearby secret chamber walls. Immediately, a five-colored radiant mist flashed, the secret chamber emitted rumbling sounds, and then began to shake continuously.

With a soft "crack," the golden halo surprisingly cracked open in the middle like a mirror, forming a long, thin fissure. Affected by this, the three-headed, six-armed golden dharma idol instantly shattered inch by inch, disappearing into thin air.

Han Li, however, let out a long breath, and the pain on his face vanished. The entire secret chamber instantly returned to peace. After an unknown period of time, Han Li finally opened his eyes, but a bitter smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.