A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality: Immortal Realm-Chapter 1243: Silver Lining

All of a sudden, Weeping Soul noticed something, and she exclaimed through voice transmission, "Master, your aura..."

"I've noticed it as well. Right now, my aura is very unstable. Not only has the Corpse Severance Talisman forcibly separated the wicked corpse soul from my soul, in a way, it's also accelerated the progression of my cultivation base. I'm currently in a very strange state. In addition to the four hundred and sixty immortal acupoints that I've already opened, there are three hundred and eighty more that are in a half-open, half-closed state," Han Li replied.

Indeed, it was a very peculiar situation that he was in. Essentially, the power of the Corpse Severance Talisman had forcibly elevated him to a pseudo mid-Great Encompassment Stage.

Opening eight hundred and forty immortal acupoints was the prerequisite to reaching the mid-Great Encompassment Stage, yet in his current state, he had one foot in the door, while the other was still stuck firmly outside, putting him in a very awkward position.

"The silver lining here is that your cultivation base seems to have been significantly elevated," Weeping Soul said.

After a brief hesitation, Weeping Soul continued, "What do we do from here, Master? Qu Lin seems to be targeting Jin Tong as well. Do we go after him or..."

Han Li was also rather hesitant, unsure of what to do.

Right at this moment, Xiaobai's voice suddenly rang out in his mind.

"Let me out, Master! I can sense Boss's aura!"

An elated look appeared on Han Li's face upon hearing this, and he immediately raised a hand to release Xiaobai.

As soon as he appeared, he immediately took on his Pixiu form and began vigorously sniffing at the air.

"That way!" he yelled as he rushed deeper into the collapsed underground space, and they quickly arrived at the stone gate at the very back of the hall.

Half of the stone gate had already collapsed, and Xiaobai rushed through the collapsed half of the gate in a flash, while Han Li's trio hurriedly followed along.

Beyond the stone gate was another rather short passageway, at the end of which was another closed stone gate that was giving off a metallic, black gleam, and there were also countless squiggly, worm-like runes etched onto its surface, forming a complex array.

Xiaobai opened his mouth to release a burst of white light with countless runes churning within it, and the ball of white light struck the stone gate before exploding violently.

The stone gate shuddered as the black array on its surface was thrown into a state of disarray, but it was able to withstand the blow.

Xiaobai's brows furrowed slightly as he prepared to try again, but Han Li had already caught up to him, and he flicked his fingers through the air in rapid succession, releasing seven or eight streaks of golden sword qi that struck the stone gate with tremendous force.

A string of resounding thumps rang out as the array on the stone gate was torn apart with ease, and the gate itself was also reduced to a pile of rubble, much to Han Li's elation.

At the moment, with over three hundred of his immortal acupoints in a half-opened state, he was able to take in the world's origin qi at a far faster rate than before, thereby significantly enhancing the power of his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords.

"Let's go," he called out to the others, and they rushed through the destroyed gate into another black stone hall.

This one was a little smaller than the underground space from before, and at its center was a giant array, at the center of which, in turn, was a black, crystalline coffin with an unclear purpose.

Spread out around the stone hall were seven or eight smaller rooms, giving it the appearance of a cave abode.

Could this be Gui Lingzi's cave abode? Han Li speculated as he swept his gaze over his surroundings, while Weeping Soul's gaze had locked onto black, crystalline coffin with her eyes glowing with intrigue.

"Boss's scent is coming from in there!" Xiaobai declared as he pressed a paw against the door of one of the rooms, and there were no restrictions on it, so he was able to push it open with ease.

Han Li and Lan Yan hurriedly rushed into the room to discover a giant, white cage that seemed to have been crafted from some type of special jade situated at its center.

The cage was riddled with spirit patterns and talismans, and it had clearly been used to hold something captive, but there was a large hole in one of its corners, seemingly having been inflicted by a bite.

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this, and he crouched down beside the hole in the cage, then wiped a finger over its jagged edge and pressed it against his own glabella momentarily, following which he concluded, "The residual aura here belongs to Jin Tong, so she must've been held captive here this entire time. However, it seems like she bit through the cage to escape. Judging from how fresh the bite mark appears, this must've happened not long ago."

"What do we do? She's already gone, and we have no way to track her," Lan Yan said in a concerned manner.

"We may not be able to track Jin Tong, but we can track Qu Lin," Han Li said.

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"That's right! He only left recently, so his trail is still fresh! Let's go after him!" Xiaobai exclaimed with an excited expression before turning to leave.

"Hold on a second," Han Li said as he reached out to stop Xiaobai with a smile on his face. "This appears to be Gui Lingzi's cave abode, so I'm sure there are many valuable spoils to be reaped here."

"You're right, Master! That bastard dared to capture Boss, so let's take everything he has to teach him a lesson!" Xiaobai chuckled in a sly manner, then flew over to one of the rooms before giving its door a vicious kick.

There was a restriction on the stone door, but it wasn't very powerful. Clearly, Gui Lingzi hadn't anticipated that someone would dare to blatantly wreak havoc in his cave abode, so Xiaobai was able to kick the door open with ease.

Lan Yan also flew over to another room before blasting through its door, while Han Li did the same.

The room that Han Li had chosen was two hundred to three hundred feet in size, and it was filled with wooden shelves that were laden with all types of precious ore and materials, all of which were of exceptional quality, superior even to the items in his collection.

On top of that, there was also a huge number of them, and this was the perfect find, considering he was currently in need of large sums of Immortal Origin Stones.

With a sweep of his sleeves, Han Li released two bursts of azure light that swept up the materials along with their shelves before stowing them away into his Flower Branch domain.

Given the urgency of the situation, he acted very quickly, taking everything in the room in the blink of an eye before moving onto the next room.

Inside this room was an octagonal, golden cauldron that was even taller than he was, and even in its resting state, it was giving off a burst of tremendous spiritual qi fluctuations.

There was nothing else in the room aside from the cauldron, so this had to have been Gui Lingzi's pill refinement chamber.

Han Li wasted no time in taking the cauldron, which he could use for himself or sell for a considerable sum of Immortal Origin Stones, then arrived at a third room.

It was a small room with only a stone table inside, enshrouded within a black light barrier.

There were around a dozen fist-sized, black crystal balls on the table, all of which were filled with flickering, black flames, and even through the light barrier, one could sense astonishing soul power fluctuations emanating from them.

"Those are balls of Profound Yin Divine Lightning!" Lan Yan exclaimed from behind Han Li upon catching a glimpse of the crystal balls.

"What's that?" Han Li asked.

"Profound Yin Divine Lightning is a special type of yin lightning refined by Gui Lingzi. It's extremely powerful, posing a threat even to early-Great Encompassment cultivators. Thank heavens Gui Lingzi wasn't carrying these balls of lightning with him. Otherwise, we would've been in some trouble during our battle," Lan Yan explained with a hint of lingering fear in her eyes.

Han Li's eyes lit up slightly upon hearing this, and he flicked a finger through the air, releasing a bolt of golden lightning that destroyed the black protective barrier around the stone table with ease.

However, right at this moment, the black crystal balls on the table suddenly began to radiate dazzling, black light, and the black flames within them were also displaying signs of erupting.

Han Li was rather alarmed by this, but before he had a chance to do anything, a burst of black light raced through the air from behind him to envelop the crystal balls.

The black flames in the crystal balls were stabilized by the law powers imbued within the burst of black light, and Weeping Soul approached Han Li as she explained, "These balls of yin lightning are still yet to be fully refined, so they're still a little volatile, and your Cardinal Heavenly Lightning is the bane of all yin-attribute powers, so you could easily trigger this yin lightning into exploding."

"In that case, you can have them," Han Li said.

Weeping Soul shuddered slightly upon hearing this, following which a look of excitement and gratitude appeared on her face as she thanked Han Li for his generosity.

The burst of black light that she had released carried the balls of Profound Yin Divine Lightning to her at her behest, and she cast a string of incantation seals onto them.

A layer of black light instantly appeared around the crystal balls, as if a thick layer of paint had been applied onto them, and only then were the black flames inside completely stabilized.

Meanwhile, Xiaobai had also returned to Han Li's side, having reverted back to his human form, and there was a wide grin on his face.

The doors of the other rooms in the cave abode had all been destroyed, and it was clear that everything inside had been pillaged.