Chapter 1424: Heavenly Peng Clan and Tribute

Volume Nine: Myriad Races of the Spirit Realm

"This is already the third time I've failed to break through the bottleneck. It seems mere ascetic cultivation won't allow me to overcome this barrier in a short time; I'll have to find another way." Han Li muttered to himself. Immediately, he flipped his palm, revealing an object engraved with a black fire phoenix.

It was precisely the small silver bottle containing three Black Flame Pills.

Although the Black Flame Pill is renowned as the best spiritual medicine for breaking through the late-Deity Transformation stage bottleneck, its potent efficacy also makes it suitable for cultivators in the mid-Deity Transformation stage. However, its effects are somewhat too powerful; if taken by a cultivator with insufficient cultivation or a weakened physique, they might instead be consumed by the Black Phoenix Flames contained within the pill and die.

Han Li, possessing the Spirit-Devouring Heavenly Flame and cultivating both his spiritual power and physical body, naturally had no such concerns. He could easily take it to help him break through his current bottleneck.

But in doing so, he would have one less Black Flame Pill when advancing to the Void Refinement stage, which would significantly lower his chances of breakthrough.

After all, spiritual medicines like the Black Flame Pill are extremely rare and difficult to acquire. His current mid-stage bottleneck was merely a matter of time before he broke through. However, countless cultivators remained stuck at the late-Deity Transformation stage bottleneck their entire lives. The scarcity of Void Refinement cultivators compared to Deity Transformation cultivators clearly demonstrated the difficulty of that advancement. Therefore, when breaking through that bottleneck, the more auxiliary pills, the better.

After pondering for a long time, a wry smile appeared at the corner of Han Li's mouth. He still put away the medicine bottle in his hand and returned it to his storage bracelet.

Han Li, however, had no intention of continuing his secluded cultivation. He stood up and walked towards the secret chamber's door.

Outside the secret chamber, a giant ape puppet was waiting, though Han Li didn't know when it had arrived.

Han Li raised an eyebrow, about to speak, when the puppet suddenly took a large stride forward and presented a light-yellow, rod-like object with both hands. It was covered in peculiar dark green patterns. It was precisely the Profound Sky Fruit.

As soon as Han Li saw the object, his expression turned solemn.

He grabbed with one hand, drawing the object into his grasp. At the same time, his eyes glowed intensely with blue light, allowing him to see straight through it.

As a result, the light cluster inside, which was originally the size of a soybean, was now surprisingly the size of a thumb.

Han Li weighed this supreme treasure in his hand, feeling a little frustrated.

Regarding information about the Profound Sky Fruit, Han Li had secretly investigated it in some ancient bookshops in Skyreach City back then.

But strangely, no matter how ancient the records, none mentioned anything about it. If he hadn't obtained some information related to the Profound Sky Immortal Wood and Immortal Vine while in the Human Realm, he probably wouldn't have known what the Profound Sky Fruit even was.

Nevertheless, since the Profound Sky Fruit could contain the power of a realm's laws, it was naturally a heaven-defying treasure.

Han Li naturally hadn't let slip a single word about it.

After once again finding that injecting spiritual power into the Profound Sky Fruit had no effect, Han Li stroked the object with his finger, a thoughtful expression on his face.

Over the years, he had almost continuously injected the mysterious green liquid into the fruit. Apart from making the white light spot grow slightly larger, he hadn't observed any other abnormalities.

Although he didn't know if continuously injecting the spiritual liquid would truly make the fruit usable by him, he could only continue doing so for now.

After carefully putting away the Profound Sky Fruit, Han Li went to check on his medicine garden.

In the medicine garden, the spiritual herbs he had originally planted, such as Ganoderma Dragon Fruit, had already matured. A batch of them had been specially collected by the puppet and stored in another storage bracelet.

Han Li was naturally overjoyed and immediately transferred those spiritual fruits to his own storage bracelet.

After completing all this, Han Li beckoned with one hand towards the puppet that had been accompanying him.

Instantly, his second Nascent Soul flew directly out of the giant ape puppet, and after a brief circling, it merged back into his body.

Han Li's eyes narrowed slightly, as if receiving some information. A moment later, after patting the back of his head, he released his second Nascent Soul back into the puppet, and simultaneously let out a cold laugh.

"A mere few mid-level demonic beasts dare to come knocking again. It seems they've found some helpers."

After saying this, Han Li strode towards a certain hall within his immortal cave.

A huge magic array and an altar-like high platform stood quietly there. The high platform was located at the array's eye, prominently displaying an octagonal magic plate!

Without further ado, Han Li raised his hand and cast several incantations onto the magic array.

After a low hum, the entire array shimmered with white light. Then, as the white light flickered, a layer of silver light curtain appeared on the octagonal plate. Tiny white dots of light constantly flickered on it, almost covering the entire light curtain.

While establishing this immortal cave, Han Li had actually placed a large number of Myriad Loong Pearls within several hundred *li* of the cave.

Now, he casually swept his gaze across the light curtain and immediately discovered several black light spots flickering erratically in a location over twenty *li* away.

Han Li formed a hand seal with both hands. His body radiated a brilliant green light, instantly transforming into a green rainbow that flew out of the hall. After a few flashes, he vanished without a trace from the entrance of his immortal cave.

Such a short distance, with Han Li's incredible movement speed, he reached his destination in mere moments, almost within a few breaths.

There, a three-headed green-patterned giant python, an ox-headed, lion-bodied, emerald-colored small beast, and an unusually blurred gray light-shadow stood suspended low in the air, whispering something.

When Han Li appeared with a strange flash high in the sky, the three demonic beasts below reacted quickly, suddenly transforming into two gusts of demonic wind and a streak of gray light, scattering in all directions.

But Han Li snorted lightly. Three red threads flew out of his sleeve. After a flash, they strangely appeared behind the demonic winds and gray light. With a burst of red light, they firmly bound all three fleeing demonic beasts, rendering them completely immobile.

Han Li flicked his sleeve again. With a pull from the three red threads, the three demonic beasts were forcibly pulled before him.

Both the ox-headed beast and the giant python showed expressions of terror in their eyes. Only the demonic beast enveloped in gray light suddenly spoke.

Although its accent was extremely strange, Han Li didn't understand a single word. However, its tone seemed to carry a hint of threat.

Han Li's expression darkened. He didn't respond, simply making a grasping motion towards the demonic beast in the gray light.

A dazzling, multi-colored light swept forth.

As soon as the demonic beast's protective gray light was touched by the multi-colored light, it instantly melted and dissipated like snow in spring.

With a "whoosh," the demonic beast's true form was instantly drawn into Han Li's hand, his five fingers pressing onto its skull.

This demonic beast's true form was only about half a *zhang* long. Its entire body shimmered with golden scales. It was a fish demon with four limbs growing from its abdomen. This demon's fish head had even transformed into a face resembling a human's, but being on a fish head, it naturally appeared horrifying.

There was no demonic beast Han Li hadn't seen. Although this Level Six fish demon before him was terrifying, it naturally wouldn't faze him in the slightest.

His palm, pressed against the demon's head, suddenly burst forth with golden light.

The demon immediately let out a pained shriek. Its body convulsed a few times, then stiffened and fell unconscious.

Han Li actually directly performed Soul-Searching Art, beginning to search for what he needed within the demon's primordial spirit.

The three-headed python and the ox-headed beast, witnessing this, trembled with fear, their eyes filled with terror.

With Han Li's current divine abilities, soul-searching a Level Six demonic beast was naturally an easy task. In just the time it takes to steep a cup of tea, he had thoroughly searched everything in the demon's primordial spirit.

Words like "Sky Roc Clan," "Tribute," and "Venerable Baoguang" successively surfaced in Han Li's mind, causing his heart to skip a beat. Immediately, the golden light in his hand receded, and his fingers suddenly loosened.

The fish demon immediately plummeted straight down from high in the sky!

The next moment, the red thread binding the demonic beast swelled in size, instantly transforming into a fiery chain. Then, with a whoosh, a ball of fiery red flames instantly enveloped the demon, turning it to ash in the blink of an eye.

The fiery chain flickered, transforming back into a red thread, and vanished into Han Li's sleeve in a flash.

Only then did Han Li turn his head, his gaze falling upon the other two demons, his face devoid of any expression.

"You're quite daring. For a mere few Woodbell Flowers, you dared to covet my immortal cave?" After a moment of silence, he spoke, surprisingly in a foreign language.

Through soul-searching, he had not only mastered this foreign language but also roughly understood why these mere mid-level demonic beasts repeatedly tried to scheme against his immortal cave.

"Without the Woodbell Flowers, we cultivators of Black Shadow Mountain won't be able to gather the required tribute," the ox-headed beast, apparently the most intelligent, replied. "We would inevitably have our souls extracted and skins flayed by the Sky Roc Clan, and our intelligence scattered. Even knowing your formidable divine abilities, we had no choice but to try."

"Woodbell Flowers, you mean this spiritual herb, right?" Han Li chuckled, and with a flip of his hand, a small purple flower, resembling a bell and emitting waves of peculiar fragrance, suddenly appeared in his palm.

"Yes, precisely that spiritual item," the ox-headed beast said, staring fixedly at the item in Han Li's hand for a long time before letting out a bitter laugh. "Although our Black Shadow Mountain Range has many spiritual mountains, this flower now only exists on the spiritual mountain where you reside."

"This flower doesn't contain much spiritual energy, nor can it be refined into any wondrous spiritual pills, yet it ranks first in your millennial tribute. That's quite strange. And without it, you might indeed be severely punished by those Sky Roc Clan members. However, to think you could conquer my immortal cave just by finding a recently transformed Sea Dragon Beast is a bit too arrogant. Tsk-tsk, and offering ten pairs of Golden Marrow Crystal Worms as compensation, you really spared no expense. But as far as I know, these strange half-crystal, half-worm creatures usually hide deep underground in various rare mineral deposits and are extremely difficult to find. Even if encountered, once caught, they immediately lose all life and turn into a crystal. How did you manage to catch live Golden Marrow Crystal Worms?" Han Li stroked his chin, and after a flash of light in his eyes, asked seemingly casually.

"It's no harm to tell you about this," the ox-headed beast suddenly said with a cold laugh. "After this place was discovered by the Sky Roc Clan members back then, there were indeed individuals in the Black Shadow Mountain Range with cultivation deeper than ours. But they were all slaughtered by the three Grand Elders of the Sky Roc Clan. Only we were allowed to continue cultivating here. This is naturally because only we possess unique talents, and together, we can collect the tribute items they require. Otherwise, how could we still be alive today!"