Chapter 712: Boxed Treasure

Volume 5: Gaining Renown

A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality VIP Volume 5: Gaining Renown

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After using the Lightning Escape Art to flee a hundred miles in one go, Han Li paused briefly to reorient himself. He then changed into a blood-red cloak, transforming into a streak of blood-colored light, and tore through the air as he flew.

After flying over a thousand miles this time, he spotted a team of tens of thousands of Mulan mortals below. His heart stirred, and he stopped.

During his time at Falling Cloud Sect, he had also discussed with the silver-haired elder the circumstances of the battles between Mulan spellcasters and Heavenly South cultivators.

He knew that although ordinary members of the Mulan tribe couldn't cultivate spiritual arts, during each attack, Mulan spellcasters would still organize many young and strong mortals into temporary tribes. These tribes would take advantage of the Heavenly South cultivators' inability to attend to other matters to seize various spirit stone raw materials and mines in Heavenly South. This ensured that even if the Mulan spellcasters eventually failed and retreated, they wouldn't return empty-handed.

Such robbery-like actions naturally drew much condemnation from the Nine-Nation Alliance. However, they couldn't spare the attention to deal with this matter at the moment.

After all, if too few cultivators were sent to guard these areas, they could easily be wiped out by high-ranking Mulan spellcasters. Sending too many, however, would impact the main battlefield and the ongoing conflict with the spellcasters.

The only viable option was to wait until the spellcasters had seized these raw material production sites and mines. Then, cultivators would be sent to recapture them and eliminate these Mulan mortals in the process.

Unfortunately, these Mulan people simply didn't care about the casualties of ordinary mortals. Once a group was annihilated, another would immediately be reorganized, essentially trading human lives for these rare resources. Moreover, they would occasionally set traps, severely injuring cultivators who came to reclaim the mines and production sites.

As a result, after losing many cultivators, the Nine-Nation Alliance simply turned a blind eye. They reasoned that no matter how frantically the Mulan people exploited the resources in such a short time, they couldn't take many spirit stones or materials. As long as the main spellcaster army was repelled quickly, these Mulan mortals would obediently retreat.

Currently, this team had many carts, oxen, and horses. Their direction of travel was towards Heavenly South, and most of them were young men and women, indicating they were likely a small, temporary tribe formed to seize resources in Heavenly South.

Han Li stood above this team, his powerful spiritual sense sweeping over them. Inside, there was only one Foundation Establishment stage spellcaster and three Qi Condensation stage spellcasters. None of them posed a threat to him.

He lowered his head and pondered for a moment. Suddenly, Han Li formed a hand seal with both hands. His figure vanished, becoming invisible in the air. The next moment, he quietly appeared on a dilapidated covered wagon in the Mulan people's team, which was filled with tattered cowhides and some mining tools like hoes.

With a wave of his hand, Han Li cleared a small space in the middle of the wagon. He then calmly sat down cross-legged.

He had thought it through well: with all Mulan spellcasters currently mobilized, if he, a cultivator, openly tried to return to Heavenly South, he would likely encounter trouble on the way.

Although with his cultivation level, he wouldn't need to fear anyone unless he encountered a few of the most powerful spellcasters, he couldn't, however, handle sheer numbers.

Even their group of seven or eight Nascent Soul cultivators had to hide to obtain treasures!

Moreover, besides the spellcasters, he also needed to avoid Wang Tiangu and others, to prevent them from acting rashly and trying to silence him.

Now that he was hidden within this mortal team, although their progress was slow, he could safely exit the Mulan Grassland in two or three days.

Presumably, no one would pay attention to such a mortal team. Even if a spellcaster occasionally checked, with his current divine abilities, unless it was a late Nascent Soul stage spellcaster, they wouldn't discover his presence.

Once he entered the wilderness, outside the Mulan people's sphere of influence, he could return to Heavenly South alone.

As he sat in the wagon, the conversations of several Mulan people outside clearly reached his ears.

The Mulan language was naturally somewhat different from that of the Heavenly South Yan people. However, before this journey, Han Li had already learned a bit through relevant jade slips.

With his current powerful spiritual sense, although it only took him a day or two to learn these things, he had grasped most of it. Thus, he could understand the conversations outside.

They were mostly talking about how many spirit stone resources they could plunder from Heavenly South on this trip, and whether they would have the opportunity to gain favor from the Exalted Masters and rise in prominence.

From their words, these Mulan mortals were filled with worship and reverence for the spellcasters, almost as if it were a form of faith.

It was as if dying for these spellcasters was an exceptionally glorious thing for ordinary Mulan people.

Han Li sighed inwardly upon hearing this. Then, with a single sweep of his hand, a layer of light green light barrier enclosed the entire interior of the wagon.

The Mulan people's voices immediately disappeared.

“Silvermoon, tell me about your gains now. Judging by your initial excitement, you must have found quite a few good things!” Han Li remained motionless, but with a flick of his large sleeve, the little white fox shot out from his cuff and, after circling, landed before him.

“I’m not entirely sure if they’re good things. Master, you should know that although there were quite a few ancient treasures on the first level, I didn’t take any of them because I couldn't conceal their spiritual energy after using the escape art. However, regarding the jade boxes you fiercely competed for on the second level—there were originally six—I took half. Hehe! Actually, Silvermoon initially wanted to take most of the jade boxes, but I was afraid that taking too few would arouse their suspicion, which wouldn’t be good. That’s why I only took three.” The little fox half-squatted on the ground, letting out light laughter.

Then, with an open mouth, it spat out three glistening jade boxes, which landed steadily before Han Li.

Han Li glanced at the jade boxes, then touched his waist with one hand, and another identical jade box appeared in his grasp.

“Exalted Master Cang Kun left a total of six jade boxes, and four of them ended up in my hands. This trip was indeed worthwhile,” Han Li said with a faint smile, stroking the lid of a jade box for a moment.

“But Master, you're truly bold. To secretly act in front of so many Nascent Soul cultivators and let me escape in first—weren’t you afraid of being discovered?” Silvermoon sighed with some lingering fear.

“Heh heh! What’s there to be afraid of? At worst, I’d use the Blood Shadow Escape Art and flee in an instant. Besides, when I did that, I naturally had an eighty to ninety percent certainty of success. Wasn’t the release of spiritual light to conceal the anomaly of sending you in successful? No one detected anything unusual. I was originally a bit worried that you wouldn't be able to properly conceal your form after taking the treasure and would be discovered by those old monsters. But now it seems your escape art is far more profound than I imagined.” Han Li smiled faintly, looking up at the white fox with a hint of deeper meaning in his words.

“Master, you jest. Although our Silvermoon Wolf Clan’s escape arts are profound, the most important thing is that these jade boxes themselves can conceal spiritual energy. Otherwise, whether we could fool those old monsters’ spiritual senses would be another matter.” Silvermoon’s expression remained unchanged upon hearing this, and she said with a cheerful smile.

Han Li smiled gently, not pressing further. But his palm, resting on the jade box, suddenly shimmered with green spiritual light. Then, with a slight exertion of force from his five fingers, a trace of white spiritual light appeared on the surface of the jade box, but it was immediately dispersed by the vast amount of green light and completely swallowed up.

With a soft 'click,' the lid was easily opened. Inside lay a light blue jade slip.

Han Li gazed at the jade slip for a moment, then let out a soft breath before taking it into his hand. With a slightly solemn expression, he immersed his spiritual sense into it.

The little fox stared at Han Li’s face, its dark eyes darting around, looking quite interested.

However, as time slowly passed, Han Li’s expression remained unchanged, always maintaining a calm demeanor.

This made Silvermoon blink her eyes, a hint of confusion in them.

After a full quarter of an hour, Han Li's expression shifted, and he withdrew his spiritual sense, his brows tightly furrowed in thought. But a moment later, his brows relaxed, and he calmly put away the jade slip, reaching for the second jade box without mentioning its contents at all.

Silvermoon's curiosity grew even stronger, but she wisely refrained from asking any questions.

The second jade box was opened using the same method.

This time, inside was a small and exquisite ring, but it was dull black and rather unremarkable.

“Is this an ancient treasure?” Silvermoon asked, a little surprised.

“Not really. It doesn’t seem to have much spiritual energy,” Han Li said after looking at it, also appearing somewhat uncertain.

Then, he reached out, easily picked up the object with two fingers, and brought it closer for a detailed look.

“The material is a bit strange, but it should only be an ordinary magical tool. As for its specific use, that’s hard to say,” Han Li said, making his judgment after examining it repeatedly and scanning it with his spiritual sense.

“Just a magical tool?” Disappointment flashed in Silvermoon’s eyes. “Don’t worry. Since Exalted Master Cang Kun was willing to place this object in the box, it must have another purpose. Perhaps it will be of great use in the future.” Han Li, however, was indifferent, showing no signs of dejection.

“Master, let’s look at the remaining two jade boxes. I wonder what other treasures are inside,” the little fox said, tilting its head with some anticipation.

(Only this chapter tonight!)