Chapter 652: The Dageng Sword Formation

A Mortal's Journey to Immortality, Volume 5: Renowned in One Region

Han Li didn't hesitate. He immediately sat cross-legged where he was and began circulating his qi and meditating. The icy sensation in his eyes quickly subsided.

At that moment, anyone observing Han Li would have noticed a faint, extremely subtle blue light appearing on his closed eyelids.

It took a full half-hour for the cold sensation to gradually recede from his eyes.

Han Li exhaled slowly. After his eyelids twitched a few times, he opened his eyes and instinctively glanced around.

A hint of doubt flickered across his face.

“Is there really no change? Has it had no effect at all?” Han Li blinked, muttering to himself.

However, after pondering for a moment with his head lowered, he lifted it and powerfully channeled spiritual energy into his eyes.

A blue light instantly flashed deep within his pupils.

“Oh!” Han Li couldn't help but exclaim softly.

The wall of the restricted quiet room opposite him appeared as a blurry, pale blue in his eyes.

Startled, his concentration broke, and the wall reverted to its original appearance.

“No wonder cultivators above the Core Formation stage from the three sects aren't interested in this spiritual water,” Han Li mused to himself, gazing at the spiritual water still hovering before him. “This almost negligible penetrative ability certainly isn't appealing. Several auxiliary spells can achieve much better effects. However, that’s only after a single cleansing. If I cleanse my eyes with this spiritual water every half-month, what kind of divine ability will my eyes possess over time? I’m quite looking forward to it!” Without hesitation, he cast the spell again, repeating the same cleansing steps.

There was enough spiritual water for over ten cultivators to cleanse their eyes once.

Han Li's cultivation was now profound. Although he used a greater quantity, it still required several attempts to fully utilize the spiritual water.

After exhausting all the spiritual liquid, Han Li's eyes appeared unchanged. Only when he channeled spiritual energy into them would a blue glow momentarily surface. His ability to see through restrictions also didn't seem to have significantly improved.

Han Li wasn't discouraged. After all, there was plenty of time; he could slowly develop divine abilities in his eyes.

The next day, after informing Silvermoon, Han Li entered his secluded cultivation chamber and retrieved the golden page that recorded the Azure Essence Sword Art.

The sword art comprised thirteen layers, forming a truly complete cultivation method. The divine abilities described within, such as the Azure Essence Sword Light, Body-Protecting Sword Shield, and Sword Shadow Splitting Light Art, progressively increased in power.

The first two were unremarkable; apart from being convenient and readily usable, their power was genuinely subpar.

As for the third divine ability, the Sword Shadow Splitting Light Art, Han Li was quite satisfied with it.

Although he had used this ability multiple times without immediately achieving decisive victory, that was because his opponents were too powerful, preventing the true might of the sword art from being displayed.

He believed that if his opponent was an ordinary cultivator of similar cultivation level, they would be utterly incapable of withstanding the encirclement of hundreds of sword lights and would be dismembered by the chaotic swords in the blink of an eye. Now that he could cultivate the tenth layer of the sword art, he could naturally learn its new divine abilities.

Funnily enough, although he had obtained the complete cultivation method for the Azure Essence Sword Art from this golden page back then, he suspected the creator of the page had deliberately obscured a section of the cultivation chant related to the final divine ability.

Although he knew those shimmering, illegible luminous characters contained the cultivation method for the final divine ability, his cultivation was insufficient. Even after reaching Core Formation, he couldn't discern what the final divine ability was.

As for the cultivation chant for the thirteenth layer, perhaps because its realm transcended this world, Han Li found it profoundly obscure and difficult to comprehend each time he looked at it. Not to mention cultivating it, he couldn't even grasp a hint of its meaning. It seemed only upon reaching the Deity Transformation stage, or even after leaving this realm, would he be able to unravel its intricate secrets.

Han Li wasn't anxious at the time, as it was not uncommon in the cultivation world for restrictive enchantments to be placed on inherited items, preventing disciples from rashly cultivating powerful divine abilities beyond their current cultivation level. He knew clearly that once his cultivation was sufficient, he would naturally obtain the cultivation method for this divine ability without hindrance.

Now, with his Nascent Soul stage cultivation, reviewing this divine ability's incantation naturally posed no further issues.

With that thought, Han Li tossed the golden page into the air. Then, he opened his mouth, and a cluster of green light shot out, perfectly supporting the golden page as it floated effortlessly.

With a calm expression, Han Li flicked his fingers repeatedly, sending streaks of Azure Essence Sword Light into the golden page. After a flash of radiance, they were completely absorbed.

Given Han Li's current profound spiritual energy, it was naturally impossible for him to wait a long time for a reaction, as he would have during the Foundation Establishment stage. Moments later, after absorbing enough true essence, the golden page began to emit a brilliant golden light, and luminous characters, as small as ants, progressively appeared on its surface.

Upon seeing this, Han Li didn't hesitate. He reached out and beckoned the golden page in the air. With a "whoosh," it shot into his hand.

Immediately, dense luminous characters surged wildly from the gripping hand towards Han Li's head.

Han Li accepted them calmly, his expression unchanged.

As expected, the previously illegible sections of the Azure Essence Sword Art now clearly appeared before his eyes, one by one.

Without further thought, Han Li put away the golden page and immediately closed his eyes to examine the newly acquired divine ability's incantation.

“Great Geng Sword Formation! What is this? How is it related to formations?” Han Li only briefly scanned the unfamiliar content before these prominent golden characters instantly appeared in his mind. Startled, a look of surprise couldn't help but appear on his face.

Pale golden characters appeared one after another in his spiritual consciousness, and Han Li became engrossed in comprehending these incantations, remaining motionless.

Sitting cross-legged like this, three days and three nights passed unconsciously.

Han Li's expression was very strange: at one moment extremely excited, at another looking crestfallen, and occasionally breaking out in a peculiar cold sweat.

By the evening of the third day, the expression on Han Li's face finally stabilized.

A moment later, he took a deep, somber breath and opened his eyes, a profound glint flickering within them.

“This sword formation's description is truly exaggerated,” Han Li murmured, his face reflecting a strange expression as he wet his dry lips, as if finding it hard to believe what he had comprehended. “If I could cultivate it to its peak and achieve even one-third of the power mentioned, it would be enough to sweep across the Southern Heaven.”

“However, who knows when I'll be able to actually use this divine ability,” Han Li pondered inwardly. “The number of sword lights required to set up the sword formation is already exaggerated; at least a hundred are needed. No wonder the two golden pages—one with the incantation, the other with the refining method for the Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords—are fundamentally a single, inseparable entity. The Sword Shadow Splitting Light Art was probably created for this very purpose. Otherwise, this sword formation couldn't be deployed.”

Naturally, the greater the power of the flying swords and the more sword lights produced, the stronger the sword formation would be.

Han Li estimated that if he had enough time to use his seventy-two flying swords to manifest four sword lights each, forming a grand sword formation of three hundred and sixty sword lights, it would be difficult to say for late Nascent Soul cultivators, but mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivators entering this formation would certainly be peeled of a layer of skin, if not killed outright, and would definitely not be able to retreat unharmed. Furthermore, as his cultivation advanced and he could manifest even more sword lights, it wouldn't be impossible to slay late Nascent Soul cultivators.

However, besides requiring a sufficient number of sword lights for the formation, activating this divine ability also necessitated re-refining the Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords, requiring the addition of a material called “Geng Gold Essence” to each flying sword.

Han Li was no stranger to this material. It was, in fact, the cultivation world's renowned “Precious Sharp Metal,” rarely seen, almost as rare as the refining crystal Han Li had once obtained. In terms of value, for some cultivators, Geng Gold Essence far surpassed that crystal.

This was because simply incorporating a small piece of Geng Gold Essence into a blade or sword magic treasure and refining it slightly would double the treasure's sharpness and power. It was absolutely cherished as life itself by cultivators who used flying blades, flying swords, and similar magic treasures.

But for Han Li, this was a huge problem.

Not to mention how much Geng Gold Essence each flying sword would require; even a minuscule amount, distributed among seventy-two flying swords, would still be an astonishing quantity.

Where was Han Li supposed to find such a vast amount of Precious Sharp Metal?

After all, whenever a cultivator obtained this item, they would either immediately integrate it into their magic treasure or quickly exchange it for something they needed. In short, it would be consumed as soon as it appeared.

Not to mention the Southern Heaven, even the Starfall Sea, rich in natural treasures, hadn't seen it for thousands of years.

Even if he had more spirit stones, there was simply nowhere to exchange them for this material.

Now, facing the incredibly powerful “Great Geng Sword Formation” divine ability, Han Li could only stare blankly, like gazing at the moon in water or flowers in mist.

After much thought in the quiet room, Han Li could only let out a bitter laugh before temporarily putting the matter aside. He then took out a jade box from his storage pouch. Opening the lid, he revealed a brilliant golden sphere, faintly emitting the sound of crackling lightning.

“Azure Frost Ice Flame.”

Gazing at this ultimate treasure, Han Li's expression instantly became serious.

Now that his cultivation had reached a significant level, he could finally attempt to control this flame. If he succeeded in refining the Ice Flame, then retrieving the Void Heaven Cauldron would become very promising.