Chapter 2124: Tai Xu Miao Ling Dan

"You want to enter the Spirit Cleansing Pond and consume the Pure Spirit Lotus!" he said slowly, his expression slightly grave, his gaze turning cold.

"I took such a great risk precisely to seek a slim chance of reaching the Mahayana realm. Now that I've endured hardships to arrive here, I naturally won't give up," Han Li replied calmly, his expression unchanged.

"Even if I let you enter the Spirit Cleansing Pond and obtain one or two Pure Spirit Lotuses, do you truly believe your wish will be granted? Let me be frank with you: you are not the only ones who can delve deep into this place," Baohua said meaningfully.

"Han naturally knows this. If some seniors from the Spirit Realm hadn't visited this place before, how would we have known about the Spirit Cleansing Pond and Pure Spirit Lotuses here?" Han Li replied without hesitation.

"The Spirit Realm? You truly underestimate the allure these two spiritual items hold for some powerful beings. Throughout the long existence of our Demon Realm, countless powerful individuals from other realms, including the Spirit Realm, have entered the Spirit Cleansing Pond. Some possess immensely powerful backing that even our great Ancestral Sages dared not refuse, while others possess incredible divine abilities themselves. We could only accept some compensation and then pretend not to see, no longer obstructing them. However, among all these people, fewer than one in ten truly managed to advance to a higher realm by relying on the Spirit Cleansing Pond and Pure Spirit Lotus," Baohua calmly explained to Han Li.

"Powerful cultivators from other realms... A one-tenth chance is already enough for me to take a gamble," Han Li replied with a cold snort, his brows furrowing slightly at first.

"But I wonder, what will you do, fellow Daoist, when you learn that those who emerged from the Spirit Cleansing Pond without success have, from that point on, lost all hope of advancing to a higher realm?" Baohua revealed a half-smile.

"Lost all hope of advancement?" This time, Han Li was genuinely surprised.

"Precisely. To my knowledge, any being that failed to advance with the help of the Spirit Cleansing Pond and Pure Spirit Lotus, though they might gain some temporary benefits, never managed to reach the Mahayana realm in the years that followed. Otherwise, do you think a place as crucial as Bitter Spirit Island would truly have such lax defenses? Without such restrictions, our great Ancestral Sages would spare no expense to utterly destroy everything on this island. After all, the Spirit Cleansing Pond and Pure Spirit Lotus are completely useless to our Demon race. Rather than letting powerful cultivators from other realms benefit, it's naturally better to end it once and for all. Fellow Daoist Han, do you still wish to enter the Spirit Cleansing Pond now?" Baohua's beautiful eyes flickered, a faint smile subtly gracing her lips.

"Such a thing exists!" Han Li's expression became uncertain, but then he seemed to remember something and glanced at Ancestral Sage Yuanyan beside him.

The black-robed youth chuckled sinisterly and said:

"Young Han, on this point, we have no need to deceive you. The Spirit Cleansing Pond and Pure Spirit Lotus, possessing the power to defy the heavens and help one break through the Mahayana bottleneck, naturally come with serious hidden dangers. There is nothing truly perfect in this world. The choice, and the weighing of the pros and cons, is yours alone."

"Is there truly no way to resolve this hidden danger?" Han Li's gaze was exceptionally grave, as he half-muttered to himself and half-spoke aloud.

"Of course, there are methods to counteract it. However, in my humble opinion, fellow Daoist Han, you should abandon that thought as soon as possible. These methods are simply beyond your capabilities; even for us, they are nothing we would dare to hope for," Baohua shook her head, a hint of mockery in her voice.

"What? There's a way to eliminate the hidden dangers of the Spirit Cleansing Pond!" Ancestral Sage Yuanyan was unexpectedly horrified.

"Yuanyan, there's no need to be surprised. How many years have you been an Ancestral Sage? And how many tens of thousands of years have Nielchao and I been in the Mahayana realm? There are many more secrets you don't know," the white-robed woman said coldly, gazing at Yuanyan without mercy.

Hearing this, the black-robed youth was naturally furious. After a flash of murderous intent crossed his face, he forcibly suppressed it.

"Since there are methods, perhaps senior could inform me of one or two? It's possible this junior might just be able to achieve one of them," Han Li said without hesitation.

"Alright, since you're so persistent, it's not impossible for me to tell you these methods. But first, give me some of the spring water you're using to nourish the spiritual medicine in your hand, so I can examine it," Baohua said, blinking and then suddenly smiling.

"Spirit spring? You mean this water! No problem," Han Li agreed without a moment's thought.

Then, he gently tapped the spring water in front of him with a finger.

With a "whoosh"!

A fist-sized mass of milky-white liquid immediately shot out from the spring, and after a few flashes, it arrived before Ancestral Sage Baohua.

Joy appeared on the white-robed woman's face, and she reached out with a jade-like hand.

With a loud "shhh" sound, an invisible force swept forth, instantly drawing the liquid mass into the air. It spun continuously about an inch above her palm.

Baohua stared at the spring water in her palm without blinking, a wisp of divine sense silently entering it.

After a while, with a slight tremor of the small liquid mass, it transformed into a white light and shot into her cherry lips.

A faint white mist then flashed across Baohua's face and vanished. She slowly closed her eyes, seemingly savoring the taste of the substance in her mouth.

Han Li and Ancestral Sage Yuanyan both showed a change in expression at this sight, but neither spoke.

After a short while, the white-robed woman slowly opened her eyes, which were filled with an expression of delight:

"Excellent. Originally, I only had a sixty to seventy percent certainty, but now I have at least ninety percent certainty. This spiritual medicine is indeed what I was looking for. As for the methods to avoid the hidden dangers of the Spirit Cleansing Pond and Pure Spirit Lotus, I've already recorded them in a jade slip and will give it to you as a gift."

Baohua seemed to have prepared everything in advance. As soon as her words fell, she raised a hand, and a ball of blue light flew out—it was a pale blue jade slip.

Han Li beckoned with one hand, steadily drawing the jade slip into his grasp. Without showing any emotion, he sent his divine sense into it.

The jade slip indeed contained several vivid illustrations along with dense explanatory text below them.

"Soak in Daoist Collection Exquisite Fire for forty-nine days, then consume three Heaven-Transforming Replenishing Pills..." Han Li had only just read the first two items, and his face was already subtly turning ashen.

Aren't these two items renowned spiritual treasures even in the Immortal Realm? It is rumored that, let alone the Spirit Realm, even in the True Immortal Realm, these two items are coveted treasures for many true immortals. In the eyes of some true immortals, their value even surpasses that of the Spirit Cleansing Pond and Pure Spirit Lotus.

Where was he supposed to find these two spiritual items from the Immortal Realm?

Fortunately, the jade slip recorded a few other items. Han Li suppressed the frustration in his heart and concentrated, continuing to read.

"Grind the Heaven and Earth Harmonious Flower into powder... Use the demonic core of a Seven-Legged True Crow as the main ingredient, combine it with other spiritual medicines to refine a spiritual liquid, and use it to cleanse the body for a hundred years. The formula is as follows..." Han Li's face genuinely darkened as he read on.

The Seven-Legged True Crow was also a well-known true spirit; although not comparable to powerful true spirits like the Heavenly Dragon or Rainbow Phoenix, it was certainly not something he could even consider targeting.

As for the Heaven and Earth Harmonious Flower, he had never even heard of it, and he knew without thinking that it was absolutely not something he could find.

However, when Han Li's divine sense swept across an illustration below, his heart suddenly skipped a beat.

The illustration clearly depicted a small golden-yellow bird, but at its center, there was a resplendent golden pill, its surface covered with intricate pill patterns, making it appear exceptionally mysterious!

Han Li's divine sense enveloped this illustration for a good while before he finally, with a slight adjustment in his heart, looked at the accompanying text below.

"The Grand Void Marvelous Spirit Pill: After consumption by cultivators at the Integration Stage, it can greatly advance cultivation and significantly increase the chance of breaking through the Integration Stage bottleneck. For those in the late Integration Stage or Mahayana realm, consuming it also has a certain profound and miraculous effect on breaking through the Mahayana bottleneck. If one pill is taken before soaking in the Spirit Cleansing Pond and consuming the Pure Spirit Lotus, there is a fifty percent chance of avoiding future cultivation setbacks."

"Grand Void Marvelous Spirit Pill... Void Spirit Pill!" Han Li silently repeated these two names twice in his mind, and his heart couldn't help but fill with wild joy.

The spiritual pill depicted in the illustration was, astonishingly, the very "Void Spirit Pill" he had obtained from the forbidden grounds of the Vast Cold Realm that day.

With his astonishing memory, he naturally recognized at a glance that the Grand Void Marvelous Spirit Pill and the Void Spirit Pill in the illustration were one and the same type of elixir.

That day, several Integration Stage cultivators from Thunder Roar Continent almost fell out over this pill.

He had used a stratagem that day to secretly keep one pill, but he had never understood its specific effects, so he had carefully stored it until now.

Now, seeing the explanations and descriptions below the illustration, he naturally understood in an instant.

That it had such a miraculous effect on Integration Stage cultivators breaking through to the Mahayana realm explained why those foreign Integration Stage beings were so desperate for it.

After finishing the text accompanying this illustration, Han Li merely glanced over the next two or three images, then withdrew his divine sense from the jade slip. He then fell into contemplation, his expression unreadable.

"A one-tenth chance to advance to the Mahayana realm. A fifty percent chance to avoid the hidden dangers of the Spirit Cleansing Pond and Pure Spirit Lotus."

Han Li began rapidly weighing the pros and cons.

Seeing Han Li's expression, Baohua's eyes flickered, and a hint of surprise subtly crossed her face.

After an unknown period, Han Li suddenly opened his eyes and calmly said to the white-robed woman:

"I still adhere to my original decision: I will enter the Spirit Cleansing Pond below. Once I emerge, I will naturally present you with what you desire!"

Then, without waiting for Baohua's reply, he abruptly turned his head and continued, addressing Yuanyan word by word:

"Senior Yuanyan, as long as you agree not to obstruct my entry into the Spirit Cleansing Pond and my search for the Pure Spirit Lotus, I will also gift you the Demon Refining Herb afterward. If neither of you agrees to this condition, Han will destroy these two spiritual medicines on the spot, and then the three of us will fight based on our individual strength. Let's see if the two of you, working together, can truly keep me on this island permanently."