Chapter 863: Crimson Cloud Pill and Snow Soul Pill

Volume 3, Chapter 6: Heavenly Spirit Treasures

“Oh! This seems to be a Wanmeng Fruit. It has turned deep purple. It only acquires this color after possessing over ten thousand years of medicinal efficacy.” Grandmaster Dayan's astonished voice rang out.

“No one has visited this ruined medicinal garden for countless millennia. If the medicinal properties hadn't reached over ten thousand years, *that* would be strange!” Han Li suppressed the excitement in his heart and spoke calmly. He didn't immediately rush to harvest anything. Instead, he quietly observed the area for a long time before turning and heading towards another corner.

“Dragon-Pattern Grass.” “Wind Spirit Flower.” He murmured the names of these incredibly rare or long-extinct spirit herbs. The spiritual essence of all these herbs was over ten thousand years old, making Han Li’s eyes grow even brighter.

“I didn't expect you to be so familiar with spirit herbs,” Grandmaster Dayan said, somewhat surprised, "Some of the ones you named, I don't even know their medicinal properties.”

“Is Senior perhaps making fun of me?” Han Li raised his head, glanced at the herbs in other directions, and said with a slight smile, "Among the spirit herbs here, it would be good if I could recognize even a third. For the rest, I'll need Senior's further guidance.”

“Hmph! Although I’ve dabbled a bit in alchemy, I haven’t delved deeply into it,” Grandmaster Dayan said. “I can only help you identify a few more kinds. Over there is…” Perhaps Grandmaster Dayan considered this a minor matter; he didn’t make things difficult for Han Li, easily identifying the names and uses of several other spirit herbs.

Han Li looked, then nodded. With a flip of his hand, a pale green jade slip appeared. Without hesitation, he immersed his spiritual sense into it, remaining motionless, seemingly searching for something.

Grandmaster Dayan, understanding the situation, didn't make a sound to disturb Han Li and remained silent.

After about the time it takes to eat a meal, Han Li withdrew his spiritual sense from the jade slip. A pensive expression appeared on his face.

This jade slip was the one given to Han Li by the woman surnamed Song from Falling Cloud Sect. It contained records of many ancient spirit herbs and pill formulas, and he relied entirely on it to identify so many spirit herbs and trees in this garden.

However, Han Li had just carefully reviewed it. Among these ancient pill formulas, only one could be immediately prepared with all the necessary ingredients for refining. Part of the ingredients were the ancient spirit herbs he had just identified, while the other part consisted of materials he had obtained from the border gamble and as ransom for the ancient bronze lamp treasure. Combined, they barely amounted to the raw materials for refining a pill called the "Crimson Cloud Pill."

According to the pill formula, this ancient spirit pill, even in the savage era, was a rare and effective cultivation-advancing medicine. For Han Li, a Nascent Soul early-stage cultivator, its medicinal properties would even be somewhat wasteful and overly potent. The optimal stage for consumption would be after entering the Nascent Soul mid-stage.

If consumed in the Nascent Soul early stage, not only would some of its medicinal properties be wasted, but one would also have to endure intense pain from expanding and even tearing meridians.

Besides the Crimson Cloud Pill, there was also a spirit pill called the "Snow Soul Pill" that had a strong possibility of being refined. The main ingredients for this pill could be gathered from the spirit herbs in this garden and his existing materials. Although the few remaining missing ingredients were rare and difficult to find, there was a chance to obtain them outside.

Although the Snow Soul Pill was not a cultivation-advancing pill, it was an auxiliary spirit medicine that allowed cultivators with ice-cold attributes to further enhance their mortal ice-cold powers. The pill formula only briefly mentioned its effects, without detailed explanation. However, a pill requiring so many rare ingredients to refine must certainly be extraordinary.

As for the remaining spirit herbs in the garden, no other ancient pills could be fully prepared from them. They could only be collected and kept for future use.

As Han Li's thoughts whirled, he organized the uses of these spirit herbs. Even though he was usually calm and composed, at this moment, he couldn't help but feel waves of excitement!

It had been several years since he entered the Nascent Soul early stage. Although he had been busy and hadn't had the chance to truly seclude himself for long-term cultivation, it was also partly because he lacked suitable pills to accelerate his cultivation, leading him subconsciously to seek opportunities elsewhere.

Now, it seemed his efforts hadn't been in vain; his opportunity had truly arrived.

If the efficacy of these Crimson Cloud Pills was truly as miraculous as the pill formula described, the quantity of spirit herbs here would be enough to advance his cultivation to the peak of the early stage. Then he could attempt to break through the bottleneck and enter the Nascent Soul mid-stage.

What's more, if he harvested some of these spirit herbs to transplant, he could continue to use the green liquid to accelerate their growth. After that, the supply of Crimson Cloud Pills would be continuous.

As for the Snow Soul Pill, it would also be of great use to him.

After all, both the refined Azure Essence Ice Flame and the Violet Cloud Heavenly Flame were extremely cold divine abilities, and this pill could precisely be used to enhance their power.

With his plans settled in his mind, Han Li let out a long breath. A rare expression of joy appeared on his face. If everything truly went according to his plan, then his venture into the Fallen Devil Valley this time would not have been in vain. The various destroyed treasures and puppets would seem insignificant in comparison.

The only thing that still caused him some worry was naturally the two lost flying swords infused with Geng Metal Essence. However, these two Azure Bamboo Cloud-Swords were his Natal Treasures. As long as their master wasn't dead, there was no fear of them being forcibly stolen. At worst, he would just have to spend more effort to retrieve them after he left. It shouldn't be too difficult.

Han Li didn't know that the flying swords had fallen into the hands of another ancient devil, so he naturally mused to himself in this way.

No longer overthinking, Han Li slapped his storage pouch with one hand. A dozen jade boxes of various sizes shot out from the pouch’s opening, hovering one by one before him.

Han Li immediately bent down and began carefully transplanting the spirit herbs at his feet. As soon as one such spirit herb was transplanted into a jade box, he didn't immediately move on to other identical herbs. Instead, he took the jade boxes to another adjacent patch of spirit herbs.

Whether familiar or unfamiliar spirit herbs, Han Li intended to transplant at least one of each without missing any. This way, after leaving this space, he could continue to cultivate and use them.

However, after Han Li had actually tried this plan, his expression darkened, becoming very displeased.

This was because, among the ancient spirit herbs in this medicinal garden, three types turned out to be untransplantable.

One stalk, just after being transplanted into a jade box, inexplicably spontaneously combusted and turned to ash. Another, similar to the Spirit Pillar Fruit he had seen before, immediately withered, its leaves turning yellow and losing all medicinal properties the moment it left its original growing spot. The last type of spirit herb was even more bizarre: the moment its roots touched the soil, the herb seemed to be startled, instantly dissolving and disappearing, leaving only a puddle of liquid behind.

Han Li felt greatly vexed. Hadn't it been said that there weren't many untransplantable spirit herbs in this world? Yet, in just a small corner of this medicinal garden, three types appeared.

What depressed Han Li the most was that one of these spirit herbs was precisely one of the main ingredients for refining the Crimson Cloud Pill. This was utterly terrible news.

After circling the flame-red small herbs, which glowed like fire, several times, Han Li's expression turned as dark as water.

Suddenly, he remembered something. After a slight hesitation, he reached into his robe and fumbled around, pulling out a small green bottle that was neither wood nor metal. It was precisely the mysterious small bottle that Han Li regarded as his greatest treasure.

Under normal circumstances, this bottle was kept hidden close to Han Li's body using a secret technique. Unless he died, it would be absolutely impossible for anyone else to discover or steal it.

“What is that?” Grandmaster Dayan asked, somewhat curious. “Nothing much, just an artifact,” Han Li replied seemingly casually. Then, he held the small bottle flat in one hand and calmly opened its lid with the other.

Although the lid was opened, nothing unusual happened.

After waiting for a while longer, Han Li slowly closed the bottle and carefully put it away. His brows furrowed deeply.

This space had no sun, moon, or stars, nor any distinction between day and night, so it was not surprising that the small bottle lost its efficacy here. However, Han Li still felt a wave of depression in his heart.

This meant that even if he stayed here for years, he wouldn't be able to obtain more Crimson Cloud Pills. He would only get as many pills as the current spirit herbs allowed.

A wave of vexation swept through his heart. Han Li sighed, raised his head, looked at the hazy gray sky, and narrowed his eyes.

Regardless of the pill situation, he had another, more urgent problem that needed to be resolved first: how to get out of this space and return to the Human Realm.

It was important to remember that now no one could cooperate with him for a combined attack.

Just now, he had used his spiritual sense to probe the four walls. None of the spatial walls around him showed any instability or abnormalities; they were all seamlessly integrated, with no cracks to exploit. As for the sky and the ground, his spiritual sense was bounced back by something the moment it tried to probe them. It seemed there were restrictions in both these areas.

Yinyue had already used Earth Evasion Art to delve into the ground and inspect it thoroughly.

The only place he needed to investigate thoroughly was the hazy gray cloud layer above.

But the demon soul had just been killed by this terrifying restriction before his eyes. Naturally, Han Li was unwilling to easily provoke this restriction and cause himself great trouble.

As he lowered his head in thought, a silver light shimmered on the ground in front of him. Yinyue’s figure emerged and quickly bowed deeply to Han Li.

“Master, your servant has already investigated everything below,” Yinyue said somewhat apologetically. “Although there is a restriction below, it is incomplete. Your servant followed the gaps and delved deep, searching everywhere but found no abnormalities. I’m afraid I have disappointed you.”

“It’s nothing. There wasn’t much chance of finding any loopholes below anyway,” Han Li said, his expression unchanged. After slowly nodding, he raised his head and looked at the sky.

“Is Master planning to explore the sky?” Seeing Han Li’s action, Yinyue grew somewhat worried.

“Yes! There are no loopholes around or on the ground,” Han Li said with unusual decisiveness. “We can only risk checking above. Since the silver flame only killed the ancient devil, this restriction, though powerful, should not pose a great threat to human cultivators. Nothing will happen. Otherwise, are we truly to be trapped here for a lifetime?” Then, a green light shimmered around him, and he floated upwards into the sky.