Chapter 503: Wolf-shaped Spirit Vessel

**Volume 4: Winds Rise Overseas**

Soon after parting ways with Yuan Yao, Han Li, eager with anticipation, took out the Void Cauldron. While flying, he couldn't wait to inspect the treasures inside the cauldron.

But soon enough, Han Li found himself utterly exasperated.

Despite trying every conceivable method, the cauldron's lid seemed to be forged as one with its body. He couldn't open it even a crack.

Whether it was frantically injecting spiritual energy into the cauldron or angrily using various magic tools to directly strike its walls, it would only flicker with a blue glow a few times, remaining perfectly still.

Han Li's heart sank.

Currently, apart from being able to enlarge or shrink the Void Cauldron, he had absolutely no other way to interact with it.

Han Li, upon discovering this fact, frustrated beyond measure, spent half the day cursing aloud over the deserted sea. The target of his tirade was, of course, the elusive master of the Void Palace.

It was clear that there was something peculiar about this Void Cauldron. Perhaps only Nascent Soul stage cultivators could activate it, or there was another secret trick to opening it; it wasn't as simple as just injecting spiritual energy.

Could it be related to the Azurefrost Glaze Flame that originally surrounded the cauldron?

Utterly confused, Han Li could only make wild guesses.

However, upon reflection, this was quite normal.

The Void Cauldron was reputed to be the top secret treasure of the Scattered Star Seas, so it was perhaps to be expected that it had some tricks up its sleeve, and nothing to be too surprised about.

But possessing a treasure he couldn't use left Han Li extremely vexed.

Annoyed, he tossed the cauldron back into his storage pouch. He decided to properly study it later when he had more time.

Next, Han Li took out the Wolf-Head Jade Ruyi Scepter and began to explore its functions.

Surprisingly, in a short amount of time, he actually uncovered two divine abilities from this ancient treasure.

The simplest was to directly inject spiritual energy into the Ruyi Scepter, which would cause a yellow and red colored shield to appear around him.

Han Li had personally witnessed the defensive capabilities of this shield in the Void Palace. It had been able to withstand a strike from the giant hand formed by Layman Qingyi without a scratch. Its power was naturally extraordinary.

The other divine ability required Han Li to silently recite an ancient incantation inscribed on one side of the Ruyi Scepter. After extending his spiritual sense into the wolf heads on both ends, he could, depending on the situation, summon either a small red wolf or a small yellow wolf, or even summon a single large silver wolf at once.

The small red wolf seemed to be a manifestation of extremely pure fire-attribute spiritual energy. It was innately capable of casting formidable fire-element spiritual spells.

The other, yellow, small wolf was earth-attribute and specialized in earth-element spiritual spells. Among these was even the Earth Shield technique, which Han Li had always wanted to learn but could never comprehend.

This came as a pleasant surprise to Han Li.

As for the large silver wolf, Han Li found it a bit of a headache. He surprisingly couldn't control this beast.

Although the silver wolf would react to his commands, its actions were always lackadaisical and perfunctory.

When he tried to see what spells this wolf knew, the silver wolf would feign ignorance and ignore him.

When Han Li saw the extremely human-like perfunctory look in the wolf's eyes, he was completely speechless.

He also realized that both the yellow and red wolves were merely manifestations of the silver wolf, and that the silver wolf was clearly the true artifact spirit of the Jade Ruyi Scepter.

As for the silver wolf's stubborn disobedience, it was likely due to it not being fully refined. Han Li could only speculate this much.

However, Han Li remembered very clearly the look of astonishment on Old Devil Xuan Gu's face when he first saw the silver wolf; he had even deployed his Golden Lightning Bamboo arrows.

This silver wolf artifact spirit must be quite extraordinary; there was absolutely no doubt about it.

Therefore, Han Li didn't get discouraged and still put away the Jade Ruyi Scepter for the time being. Next, he began to organize the other treasures he had obtained from the Void Palace.

Han Li re-examined the rings given by the old devils, the Spiritual Rhinoceros Pendant, the Ice Pearl, and other treasures. He didn't find anything amiss. However, he dared not keep them on his person and stowed them all into his storage pouch.

Only Barbarian Hu's 'Imperial Scale Armor' was something Han Li truly couldn't bear to part with due to its extraordinary defensive power. After some thought, he continued to wear it close to his body.

As for the 'puppet part fragments' he acquired, the small half-bottle of 'Myriad-Year Spirit Milk', and the short section of 'Soul Nurturing Wood' root, only half a finger long, Han Li also handled them properly.

During this time, Han Li accidentally came across some small five-colored round beads. He paused, slightly startled, then immediately recalled the origin of these items.

They were the strange objects left behind that day by the Southern Sky Teleportation Formation, when he had incinerated the five-colored skeleton.

Now, it seemed, since the Blood Jade Spider was near that skeleton, it was highly probable that the skeleton belonged to Old Devil Xuan Gu's other rebellious disciple, Ji Xuan.

Why its bones were five-colored, when it was just a skeleton, and what its exact connection to Emperor Yue was, remained a mystery that Han Li found difficult to unravel.

However, looking at these round beads, Han Li, for some reason, was reminded of the Heaven Mending Pill that had flown out of the Void Cauldron.

They were similar in color, but the Heaven Mending Pill was much larger than these beads, and glowed intensely, appearing even more dazzling. Han Li gazed at the beads in his palm, pondering for a long time, before carefully putting them away again.

Afterward, Han Li confirmed his direction, took out his Blood-Colored Cloak, and accelerated to full speed.

Enveloped in a crimson glow, he shot through the air like a meteor towards Heavenly Star City.

Although this consumed a large amount of spiritual energy, his speed was absolutely several times that of an ordinary Core Formation stage cultivator.

His current goal was to return to his cave dwelling in Heavenly Star City before other cultivators emerged from the Void Palace.

While he could abandon other items there, not a single Gold Devouring Beetle he had carefully cultivated could be left behind.

He certainly didn't want these insects to fall into the hands of old monsters who might come looking for him later. Perhaps these old monsters possessed secret techniques that could also cultivate such unique insects!

Moreover, he had already planned that as soon as he returned to Heavenly Star City, he would immediately abandon his cave dwelling and use the Star City Teleportation Formation to travel to the outer Scattered Star Seas.

He intended to hunt down demonic beasts to collect demon cores again, while temporarily avoiding the commotion from this treasure hunt, to allow his cultivation to break through the early Core Formation stage as quickly as possible.

After flying like this for some time, Han Li felt that most of his spiritual power had been depleted. He immediately reverted to his ordinary flight light and slowly recovered his spiritual power while holding a mid-grade spirit stone.

Once his spiritual power was almost restored, he would resume his journey using the Blood-Colored Cloak ancient treasure.

This way, Han Li's speed was indeed astonishing. In just a few days, he covered a distance that would normally take half a month to traverse.

Along the way, Han Li did encounter other cultivators, but they were all low-level cultivators, either at the Foundation Establishment stage or even the Qi Condensation stage. Han Li ignored them and simply flew past.

Seeing the speed of Han Li's flight light, these cultivators naturally knew they had encountered a high-level Core Formation cultivator and dared not approach or bother him!

However, as he drew closer to Heavenly Star City, the number of cultivators he encountered on the road gradually increased.

Among them were several, even over a dozen, cultivators traveling in groups.

After a month, Han Li encountered the first Core Formation stage cultivator he had seen on his journey.

But as soon as this cultivator saw Han Li, he immediately became unusually wary and flew far away, showing no intention of approaching him to talk.

One such encounter was understandable. However, after encountering two more Core Formation cultivators with similar expressions and actions in the following days, Han Li sensed something was amiss.

Could it be that something major had happened in the Scattered Star Seas during the time he was in the Void Palace obtaining treasures?

Once this thought surfaced, Han Li naturally couldn't just keep flying blindly.

So, one day, as Han Li was slowly flying over the sea, holding a spirit stone, a group of cultivators happened to fly in from another direction, diagonally towards him.

There were seven or eight of them, all at the Foundation Establishment stage. It was clear at a glance that they belonged to some cultivation force.

Without a word, Han Li transformed into a streak of green light and shot towards them.

Han Li had no intention of concealing his flight light, so when these cultivators saw him flying towards them, they immediately stirred. However, under the reprimand of the elder leading them, they all quieted down and stood respectfully. The elder leading them, though his hair was grey, was spry and spirited. He preemptively saluted and spoke before Han Li even reached them, saying, "Senior, is there anything you need us juniors to do?" His respectful demeanor left no room for fault.

As the green light receded, Han Li's figure appeared before the group of cultivators. After calmly sweeping his gaze over them, he quietly asked, "Where are you cultivators from, and where are you going?"

"We juniors are cultivators from the Three Immortals Sect, traveling to Heavenly Star City by order of our Sect Master!" the elder respectfully replied.

"To Heavenly Star City?" Han Li frowned, and after a moment of silence, slowly asked, "Along my journey, I've noticed a sudden increase in cultivators heading to Heavenly Star City, and the atmosphere seems somewhat tense."

"Haha, it seems Senior must have been in an uninhabited place recently and is unaware of this matter," the elder said, giving a slight start but secretly breathing a sigh of relief, then quickly adding with a compensatory smile, "Not long ago, something major happened in Heavenly Star City, and almost all sects and forces have been sending people there recently!"