A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality: Immortal Realm

Chapter 827: Borrowing Books

After some contemplation, Han Li shook his head to rid himself of his current train of thought before heaving a long sigh.

Under these circumstances, he was no longer able to control his own fate, so he would just have to adapt as the situation developed.

He sat down with his legs crossed, then pulled out the black bone ring that was Daoist Master Bone Shine's storage tool.

He and Shi Chuankong had been busy traveling all this time, so he never had the chance to inspect the contents of the ring.

With that in mind, he closed his eyes and injected a wisp of spiritual sense into the bone ring, and only after inspecting the contents of the ring for close to an hour did he reopen his eyes.

Immediately thereafter, eight white stone pillars that were around half a foot tall each appeared on the ground in front of him amid a flash of azure light, along with a white bone badge and a black statue.

The eight stone pillars were giving off a faint white glow, and they were none other than the eight bone pagodas..

Every single one of the bone pagodas were giving off formidable bone withering law power fluctuations, and even though there was currently no one controlling the pagodas, Han Li could still feel his own skeleton trembling incessantly within his body.

These eight bone pagodas were most likely Daoist Master Bone Shine's bonded devilish treasures, and even though Han Li was unable to control them, he could definitely make use of the tremendous law powers that they contained.

A faint smile appeared on his face as he summoned his Profound Heavenly Gourd, and a burst of green light shot out from within before sweeping up the eight bone pagodas.

The pagodas were sucked into the Profound Heavenly Gourd, where they were shredded into pieces.

Eight balls of white light then emerged within the Profound Heavenly Gourd, every single one of which was giving off astonishing law power fluctuations.

An elated look flashed through Han Li's eyes upon seeing this. These eight balls of bone withering law powers were extremely formidable, and they could serve as trump cards for him in battle.

Right as he was about to withdraw his spiritual sense from the Profound Heavenly Gourd, the eight balls of bone withering law powers suddenly converged before slowly fusing together.

A surprised look flashed through Han Li's eyes upon seeing this.

It didn't take long before the eight balls of white light fused as one into a collective ball of white light that was around twice to three times the size of each individual ball of light. Furthermore, a gray bone projection had appeared within the ball of light.

The law power fluctuations released by this ball of light weren't as formidable as before, but a sense of foreboding welled up in Han Li's heart as he observed the gray bone projection.

However, his apprehension quickly turned into elation once again.

He could sense that this bone projection possessed tremendous power, and he was confident that it could pose a threat even to a Great Encompassment cultivator.

After observing the bone projection for a while longer, he set down the Profound Heavenly Gourd, then picked up the white bone badge.

It was riddled with countless tiny characters, and it contained Daoist Master Bone Shine's primary cultivation art, the "Bone Withering Scripture", as well as some of his cultivation insights.

The Bone Withering Scripture was fit to serve as the primary cultivation art for a Great Encompassment Stage devilish cultivator, so it was definitely extremely valuable, but Han Li didn't have much use for it.

His focus was still on cultivating the laws of time, and he had already collected many time-attribute cultivation arts that he was still yet to fully master, so there was no way that he would distract himself by throwing even more cultivation arts into the mix.

With that in mind, he quickly skimmed through the contents of the cultivation art, but paid particular attention to some of the cultivation insights at the end.

A few minutes later, he stowed the bone badge away, then picked up the black statue.

The statue was only around the size of his hand, and it depicted a devilish deity with three heads and six arms, seated on the ground in a strange posture.

Han Li carefully inspected the statue for a while, following which a burst of translucent light shot out of his glabella before vanishing into the statue.

The statue immediately began performing a series of motions, as if it had sprung to life, and with each action that it performed, a passage of text would appear on its back.

However, Han Li couldn't understand even a single character, and it seemed to be some type of ancient language.

Han Li didn't know what this black statue was, but for some reason, it had caught his attention, and that was why he had decided to summon it out of Daoist Master Bone Shine's storage ring.

There were a total of twelve postures that the statue could adopt, and each posture corresponded with a different passage of text.

After some contemplation, Han Li flipped a hand over to summon a blank jade slip, using which he recorded the twelve passages of text in the hope that he would be able to unearth their meaning someday.

On top of these items, the storage ring also contained many other things like materials, Devilish Origin Stones, and pills.

However, none of these items were particularly valuable, so he couldn't be bothered to sort through them.

What was worthy of note was that Daoist Master Bone Shine's storage ring contained over two million Devilish Origin Stones, which was almost certainly going to be enough to cover his costs during his time in the Devil Realm.

Han Li summoned Daoist Xie to his side, then handed him the black bone ring as he requested, "Brother Xie, please sort through the items in this storage ring for me. If you find anything useful inside, feel free to take it."

Daoist Xie nodded in response, then accepted the ring before sitting down with his legs crossed.

Meanwhile, Han Li exited the Flower Branch domain before returning to his room, and at this point, it was already dark outside.

All of a sudden, he raised an eyebrow as he cast his gaze out of the room.

It was only for an instant, but he had detected an extremely faint aura outside, as if someone were spying on him.

After a brief hesitation, he decided not to investigate.

He was an outsider as far as those in the Devil Realm were concerned, so it was only to be expected that Shi Pokong would conduct surveillance on him. As long as Shi Pokong didn't take things too far, he was happy to turn a blind eye.

With that in mind, Han Li made his way into the inner chamber of his room, then sat down onto the bed with his legs crossed.

The night quickly passed by, and the sound of door-knocking rang out from outside the courtyard early the next morning.

Han Li opened his eyes and rose to his feet, then made his way out into the courtyard to discover that Shi Chuankong had come to visit.

"Did you have a good rest last night, Fellow Daoist Li?" Shi Chuankong asked with a smile.

"It was the safest I'd felt in a very long time," Han Li replied with a smile, then stepped aside to allow Shi Chuankong into the courtyard.

"It's alright, I won't go in. I've only just returned to Night Sun City, and there are many matters for me to take care of. I came here on this occasion as I have to speak to you about something," Shi Chuankong said as his face fell ever so slightly.

A hint of foreboding welled up in Han Li's heart upon hearing this, and he prompted, "Go ahead, Fellow Daoist Shi."

"It's about the grand priest. I raised the matter to my brother last night, and he told me that the grand priest has pledged his allegiance to my eldest brother, so it won't be so easy to recruit his services. However, we're already searching for a solution, and I'm going to follow through on my promise to you no matter what, so please be patient," Shi Chuankong said.

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly as he said, "I don't want to exert any pressure on you, but I don't have much mid-grade Purple Sun Warm Jade left. My current supply will only last another decade or two at most, so please hurry."

"You can rest assured of that, Fellow Daoist Li. My brother has already sent someone to purchase Purple Sun Warm Jade, and I'm sure they'll return soon," Shi Chuankong reassured.

Han Li's expression eased slightly upon hearing this.

"In that case, I can wait a while longer."

"Rest assured, Fellow Daoist Li, I made a promise to you, and I'll do everything in my power to fulfill my promise as soon as possible," Shi Chuankong said with a determined expression.

"I'll be counting on you then, Fellow Daoist Shi," Han Li replied with a nod.

"The second thing that I wanted to notify you of is that I'll be going into seclusion to try and make a breakthrough to the High Zenith Stage, so I won't be around for a while. If you need anything, feel free to speak to the servants in the manor," Shi Chuankong said.

"I have to congratulate you in advance then, Fellow Daoist Shi. With your aptitude, a breakthrough to the High Zenith Stage is all but assured," Han Li replied with a smile.

"Thank you for your kind words, Fellow Daoist Li," Shi Chuankong said with a smile of his own.

The two of them chatted for a while longer before Shi Chuankong departed.

Following Shi Chuankong's departure, Han Li's expression darkened slightly, and he remained standing on the spot for a moment before returning to his room.

Close to half a month flew by in a flash, and Shi Chuankong commenced his seclusion.

Han Li had stayed in his room this entire time with the exception of a visit that he had paid to Shi Chuankong prior to the commencement of his seclusion.

He was planning to borrow some books from Shi Chuankong to see if he could find any information pertaining to Weeping Soul's condition, as well as to try and find material related to the cultivation of one's spirit domain.

To this day, he still didn't know how he had defeated Daoist Master Bone Shine, and Daoist Master Bone Shine's spirit domain was different from any that he had ever seen before, so he was determined to learn more about the subject.

He had thought that Shi Chuankong would've been hesitant to lend him such resources, but to his surprise, Shi Chuankong had brought him a stack of beautiful books that very same afternoon.

Prior to his departure, he had informed Han Li that these books were from Shi Pokong's private collection, so they were not to be damaged. Otherwise, he would be reprimanded by Shi Pokong. On top of that, there were restrictions placed on the books, so they could only be read and not replicated.

For the first few days, Han Li didn't begin his reading, and only after taking a few days to familiarize himself with the environment of the Long Pavilion Garden did he begin browsing through the books.

There were around a dozen books in total, all of which had solid metal covers that were embossed with extremely elegant flowers and exotic beasts, while the pages were fashioned from some type of soft and pliable, yet durable beast hide.

The majority of the contents of the books consisted of material pertaining to spiritual damage or sealing nascent souls, and there were several devilish secret techniques in them that should've definitely been kept secret to outsiders.

However, Han Li wasn't a devilish being, nor was he primarily using a devilish cultivation art, so he had no intention of cultivating these secret techniques.