Chapter 1223: Crimson Soul Flag
"Do I look like I have a lot of time on my hands? Even if I master the first two layers of the Divine Essencefused Light in a short time and gain the ability to move this mountain, I won't be able to put it in my storage pouch, and nor will I be able to teleport with it. Do you expect me to carry this mountain back to the Heavenly South Region?" Han Li sighed.
"That's true. In that case, I don't have any good suggestions, either. If we were in the Spirit Realm, I'd be able to store this mountain in my All-Encompassing Pouch, but in this world..." The small child shook his head in a forlorn manner.
Han Li didn't know what this All-Encompassing Pouch was, but it was clearly some kind of spatial treasures. While he was surprised to learn that such a treasure existed, he knew that he wouldn't be able to rely on the Endless Sky Beast to help him here.
It appeared that he would have to think of a way himself.
Even though he wanted to elicit the Divine Essencefused Mountain's assistance to cultivate the Divine Essencefused Light and reach the Deity Transformation Stage, he didn't want to be essentially imprisoned in this place. Even if he had to be trapped somewhere for his cultivation, he definitely didn't want it to be Heavenly Star City. Similarly, he also didn't want to cultivate the Divine Essencefused Light in the Drifting Cloud Sect.
With his current resounding reputation in the Heavenly South Region, news of the fact that he had obtained the Divine Essencefused Mountain would be leaked sooner or later, and that could quite possibly result in disaster for the Drifting Cloud Sect, just as it had for the Star Palace.
It was best to find an extremely safe and obscure location where he could master this cultivation art in one fell swoop, not giving anyone a chance to plot against him.
However, it was still yet to be seen whether he was actually going to use this cultivation art. He had to use the glacial flames of his Unbroken Cinque Devils to attempt a breakthrough to the Deity Transformation Stage first. If he could succeed in doing that, then he won't have to worry about cultivating the Divine Essencefused Light. Otherwise, no matter how powerful this cultivation art was, it wasn't worth giving up his freedom just for a chance to use it.
In any case, what he had to do now was to see if he could come up with a method to take this mountain with him. If he could resolve this matter, then he naturally wouldn't have to be troubled by these concerns.
With that in mind, Han Li cast aside his train of thought and patted the storage pouch hanging from his waist. A dozen or so talismans immediately appeared in his hand, all of which were tossed toward the small mountain.
On this occasion, the talismans were all able to plaster themselves to the mountain's surface, and nothing seemed to have been amiss.
Han Li was ecstatic upon seeing this, and he hurriedly made a hand seal.
A loud explosion erupted as all of the talismans were reduced to ashes amid flashes of spiritual light.
Han Li's expression darkened, but he could only heave a faint sigh as he flipped his hand over to produce a stack of formation plates.
The formation plates were thrown into the air, and balls of lights of different colors began to slowly revolve around the small mountain. At the same time, the sound of chanting rang out within the cave.
The dozen or so balls of light revolved around the Divine Essencefused Mountain, gathering speed as they did so. All of a sudden, a burst of azure light erupted from the summit of the Divine Essencefused Mountain, flashing a few times before disappearing.
Not long after that, 11 crisp tolls of a bell rang out from within the sacred palace at the summit of the sacred mountain. The tolls of the bell were like the cries of a dragon, rising straight up into the heavens, and was audible in every corner of the Heavenly Star City. Immediately thereafter, the Star Palace announced that the great cultivator, Han Li, was officially joining the Star Palace as a guest elder, and was going into seclusion on the sacred mountain for a century.
All of the powers that heard this news expressed mixed emotions in response, but not many of them were all that surprised. After all, if it weren't for the fact that Han Li had personally slain that Wan Tianming, the Star Palace would've been the one that had ceased to exist, as opposed to the Starfall Coalition. The situation in the Scattered Star Seas hadn't truly settled, so any power would be trying to recruit such a powerful great cultivator to their side with all their might.
Seeing as Han Li was willing to go into battle against the Starfall Coalition for the sake of the Star Palace, he had to have a strong connection with the Star Palace, so it made sense that he was now becoming their guest elder.
As such, all of the powers who were still plotting against the Star Palace immediately relinquished those unrealistic plans. In the blink of an eye, many sects and powers in the Inner Star Seas had completely shut themselves off from the outside world. Aside from the Star Palace cultivators who were hunting down the remaining Starfall Coalition survivors, the Scattered Star Seas had become a picture of peace and serenity.
Ever since the rise of the Starfall Coalition, there had been several consecutive centuries of turmoil that had persisted in the Scattered Star Seas. Not only had a vast number of cultivators perished during the battle against these two colossal forces, many other sects had been affected as well. During this time, countless powers had been founded and eradicated. It was quite apparent that the Star Palace was going to rule over the Scattered Star Seas, and they had recruited an almighty great cultivator to their side, so all of these powers naturally became extremely docile and; none of them wanted to be eradicated as an example to the rest of the Scattered Star Seas!
Unbeknownst to all of these powers, the fearsome newly-instated Star Palace guest elder wasn't actually meditating and cultivating within a certain secret chamber in Heavenly Star City as was proclaimed. Instead, he was traveling over the ocean countless kilometers away from Heavenly Star City as a streak of azure light.
The amused voice of a small child sounded beside Han Li's ears. "I didn't think that you'd agree to become the Star Palace's guest elder. Even though they offered you so many spirit stones, I thought that you'd be the kind of person to reject them regardless. Aren't you always trying to avoid trouble?"
"I do indeed try to avoid trouble as much as I can, but they're offering me a lot of spirit stones just to accept a false title without having to do any work in return; why wouldn't I accept such an arrangement? Besides, the situation in the Scattered Star Seas has mostly been stabilized; the Star Palace is merely hoping to use my name to intimidate all of the other powers. If I were to agree to join the Star Palace and actually stay there, all of the Star Palace elders would be much more concerned," Han Li replied with a cold smile.
"It's no wonder that they would be concerned; at your current level, it wouldn't be impossible for you to forcibly settle into the Star Palace. As long as you take care of all of the Star Palace elders, then develop a bunch of loyal followers, the Star Palace would be yours in about 200 to 300 years," the small child replied with a faint smile.
"If I had no aspirations of ascending to the Spirit Realm and only wish to establish a sect in the human world, that would indeed be a good option. Otherwise, what would I be doing all those useless things for? It would only hamper my cultivation." Han Li's reply was completely emotionless, as if he were entirely disinterested in such a prospect.
The small child was silent for a moment before heaving a faint sigh. "I greatly admire the firmness of your heart in your pursuit of the Great Dao, Fellow Daoist Han. Even if I were in your shoes, I would be extremely tempted to take over such a powerful force. I wonder if all cultivators who ascended to the Spirit Realm from your human world had such immense willpower."
"I'm no saint; I would be lying if I told you I wasn't tempted in the slightest by the prospect of taking over the Star Palace. However, I can't afford to waste any time on such trivial matters at present. You're a heavenly spirit beast, Fellow Daoist Endless Sky, and your lifespan far outstrips mine, so you naturally wouldn't pay any heed to a few short centuries," Han Li replied calmly.
"That's true. However, it's a pity that you were unable to take the Divine Essencefused Mountain with you in the end."
"It's alright, I'll store it at the Star Palace for now. It's not like it's going anywhere, and I can come back for it when I truly need it for my cultivation. The only troubling thing is that I didn't think the mountain would be so troublesome to try and move. I've tried all types of methods, but was still unable to shrink it." Han Li's brows furrowed as he spoke.
"Indeed, you tried everything you could during those few days in that cave, but that mountain was like an indestructible object immune to all treasures and incantation seals. It doesn't appear as if anything exists in the human world that can shrink it." A thoughtful expression also appeared on the small child's face.
"Didn't you mention a powerful spatial treasure that could encompass this entire mountain?" Han Li suddenly asked.
"You're referring to the All-Encompassing Pouch that my true body in the Spirit Realm is carrying, right? Do you have a similar treasure to this? Let me make this clear to you now; a normal spatial treasure is definitely not going to be able to contain this Divine Essencefused Mountain," the small child cautioned.
Han Li was in a brief moment of silent contemplation before replying, "I don't have a complete treasure of this nature, but I do have half of one. I only recalled that I had it a short while ago, and I could perhaps be able to use it to move this mountain."
"Half a treasure?" The small child was a little dumbstruck.
A faint smile appeared on Han Li's face, and he suddenly patted his storage pouch. Black light flashed, and a strange object immediately appeared before his eyes.
It was that incomplete Black Wind Flag.
This flag was an extremely powerful spatial spirit treasure, so it would naturally have no issues storing that mountain. The only concern was that there was only half of this flag left, so it was no wonder that Han Li was referring to it as half a treasure.
A faint cry of surprise escaped from the small child's lips upon seeing this item, and a ball of azure light immediately flew out from within Han Li's sleeve. The ball of light transformed into the projection of a small child in the blink of an eye, and he waved a hand toward the object that Han Li was holding.
The half of the Black Wind Flag swayed before flying directly toward the small child. The latter caught the flag and began to carefully appraise it.
"This item used to be a spirit treasure, right? Spatial spirit treasure is quite rare, even in the Spirit Realm. But how was this treasure reduced to this state? What a pity." The small child only tossed the flag back to Han Li with a grave expression on his face after examining it for a long while.
"Do you think this treasure can be repaired, Fellow Daoist Endless Sky?" Han Li asked.
"Seeing as this treasure used to be a spirit treasure, it would be very difficult to completely restore it to its former condition. However, if you were to refine it again, it wouldn't be impossible to change it into a spatial treasure of a slightly lower caliber. I recall that there's a spatial treasure known as the Crimson Soul Flag that was slightly similar to this treasure, but if you want to refine that treasure..." The small child's voice suddenly trailed off here.
"What is it?" Han Li asked.
"There are certain secondary materials required to refine this treasure, which won't be a problem for you to obtain with your current status. However, the flag requires the sacrifices of a large number of living souls in order to be refined. The power of the flag will also be directly and completely dependent on the number of living souls sacrificed during the refinement process. It's one of the Spirit Realm's seven sinister treasures, and barely ever is it refined, even in the Spirit Realm. If you want to be able to store the Divine Essencefused Mountain into the flag, you'd need to sacrifice at least several million living souls. As for changing this flag into other types of spatial treasures, that would theoretically be possible, but you wouldn't be able to source the materials required in this world. Only the Crimson Soul Flag is a viable option for you. Otherwise, you won't be able to refine such a treasure in your human world," the small child explained.