Chapter 872: Artifact Imprint Techniques
Not long after Han Li activated the Brightsight Spirit Eyes, his expression began to stir as if having discovered something. He raised his finger to the Heavenvoid Cauldron and released several thin threads of azure spiritual Qi that soon disappeared from sight.
In a flicker of blue light, the ice flames began to surge around the cauldron, causing it to expand from its original size of several inches to three meters wide. Clear carvings of landscapes, animals and other aspects of gentle nature could be seen on its surface.
When Han Li saw this sudden transformation, he calmly stood up and beckoned to it, having it move a meter in front of him as it floated in the air.
After examining it a moment more, Han Li passed his hand through the icy flames and pressed it against the cauldron. As a result, the icy flames surged and swept up into a tornado around it. Followed by the sound of dragon cries, a three-meter-long flood dragon of blue flames emerged from the tornado. It shook itself with delight before suddenly disappearing into the cauldron.
At that same moment, the cauldron’s faint copper exterior instantly turned blue. The various animals on its exterior suddenly began to shine with light and seemed to come to life, roaming across its surface in an incredible display.
Han Li was unphased by the sight of this and quickly pierced the cauldron with several azure threads from his palm, pouring in an unending stream of spiritual power. When a large quantity of spiritual power was absorbed, the cauldron began to hum.
As Han Li gazed at the cauldron, blue ancient characters began to appear and float across on the cauldron’s surface, and in a flicker of light, they began to gather three meters in the air to form a strange spell scripture. Han Li raised his head to look at it and unconsciously slowed the infusion of spiritual Qi into the cauldron, causing the characters to suddenly dim before disappearing. In his alarm, he hastily resumed the flow of spiritual Qi, causing the scripture to appear once more in a faint blue light.
The scriptures weren’t long and only reached about a thousand characters in length. When Han Li read through it, his face initially revealed happiness but his smile soon turned bitter. The scripture was easy enough to understand; it was the method to control the Heavenvoid Cauldron.
The scripture clearly stated that there were two conditions to control the cauldron. The first would be to refine the Celestial Ice Flames. The second condition was a kind of ancient technique known as the Artifact Imprint Techniques.
These techniques were established to control Divine Spirit Treasures and other equivalent treasures. Each and every Divine Spirit Treasure passed down from antiquity has their own specific Artifact Imprint Technique. These specific techniques were incapable of being exchanged between their respective treasures as each one had their own characteristics and abilities.
As a result, there is a clear divide between ordinary ancient treasures and Divine Spirit Treasures. Only ancient treasures that had an Artifact Imprint Technique could be considered Divine Spirit Treasures. And it was only after their respective command technique was cultivated that they could be sealed within one’s body and could be slowly tempered.
Of course, Divine Spirit Treasures aren’t able to be fused with one’s spiritual sense unlike common treasures. Rather, they are closer to devilish artifacts in this regard. In order to gain influence on the treasure’s spiritual nature, one had to use Artifact Imprint Technique as the treasure was housed in their body. As a result, the Divine Spirit Treasure’s spiritual nature will gradually shift to become suitable to the user’s spiritual sense, eventually reaching the stage where one could wholly unite with their treasure and use it to its fullest extent.
And given the fantastical might of Divine Spirit Treasures, it reduces its wielder to a supporting role while in use due to the strain it puts on the user’s spiritual sense. As a result, it isn’t something that can be casually used such as one’s own bonded magic treasure; rather, it requires opportune timing to use but would allow its user to easily defeat their opponents. In summary, the tradeoffs for a Divine Spirit Treasure’s amazing power was the inability to use it immediately, requiring its owner to use its respective Artifact Imprint Technique to mold the spiritual nature of the Divine Spirit Treasure, as well as some difficulty in using it during combat.
The scripture above the Heavenvoid Cauldron had explained this in simple terms, and Han Li felt quite a bit of joy from this. But after he read the incantation, his expression to turn unsightly.
Although the incantation itself was rather simple, it comprised of three layers. The first layer of the incantation required the cultivator to be at mid-Nascent Soul stage. As for the second and third layers, they required the cultivator to be at late Nascent Soul stage and the Deity Transformation stage respectively to cultivate.
As a result, he would only be able to use only a small portion of the Heavenvoid Cauldron’s power after he cultivated the first layer. Greatly disappointed, he withdrew his hand and ceased pouring spiritual power in the cauldron, causing the scripture to immediately fade away.
Han Li stared at the huge cauldron in front of him with a gloomy expression. Although he didn’t know how much strength was a small portion of the cauldron’s power, Han Li didn’t have high hopes for it. Would it be able to compare with the Aureate Sword Formation and Purple Apex Flames?
After a moment of silence, Han Li sighed once more and decided on refining the first layer of the cauldron’s Artifact Imprint Technique. This would allow him to store the Heavenvoid Cauldron within his body, allowing him to later nurture it.
With that thought, Han Li swept his sleeve, sweeping up the huge cauldron in a jet of azure light and instantly shrinking it back to its original size. Then with the cauldron grasped in his hand, he put it away into his storage pouch in a flash of light.
With that done, Han Li sat cross-legged and slowly closed his eyes. The first layer of the Artifact Imprint Technique appeared in his mind and he began to silently comprehend it.
The technique wasn’t very complicated, taking Han Li only about a month’s time to fully comprehend it. However, the scripture didn’t state that how long he would have to temper the Heavenvoid Cauldron. Fortunately, the Artifact Imprint Technique worked on its own. So long as the Divine Spirit Treasure was kept in one’s body, his spiritual sense gradually influence the treasure’s spiritual nature.
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Two months later, Han Li emerged from seclusion.
Comprehending the Artifact Imprint Technique was far quicker than he had anticipated, allowing him to seal the Heavenvoid Cauldron inside his body. As for his remaining time, he was using the materials that Senior Martial Brother Cheng had given him as well as the puppet remains from Heavenvoid Hall to refine a single Nascent Soul grade puppet.
This wasn’t a result of not having enough materials, but the remarkably high failure rate of refining the Nascent Soul stage puppets. He originally had enough materials to refine four puppets, but he only succeeded in creating a single one, much to Han Li’s regret.
Needless to say, Monarch Soul Divergence’s puppet body needed more and higher grade materials to create. The success rate of creating the puppet body was sure to be even worse, so it was possible that he would need to collect several times as many materials for additional attempts.
When he mentioned this matter, Monarch Soul Divergence proudly explained that the refinement method was something that he had created himself and that there was no need to worry about that as he simply wouldn’t fail. If he truly failed, then the fault would most likely be in the refinement method itself. Having heard that he wouldn’t have to collect even more materials, Han Li sighed with relief.
Now that he emerged from seclusion, he first paid Nangong Wan a visit in the restricted area and observe the curse’s condition, then returning to his cave residence and spending several days refining many medicine pills greatly useful for Mu Peiling’s Core Formation. Afterwards, Han Li bid farewell to Senior Martial Brother Cheng and Lu Luo before heading to the Seven Spirit Islands to meet with Master Sunreach.
Although Senior martial brother Cheng and Lu Luo were occupied with the acquisition of new sources for the sect, they had personally sent off Han Li from the Dreamcloud Mountains, causing Han Li to smile.
...
After Han Li left the Drifting Cloud Sect, he took north in a streak of light.
The Seven Spirit Islands were to the north of the State of Xi. It was reported that if one flew a day across the Endless Sea, one could see the huge whirlpool and the Seven Spirit Islands.
A week later, Han Li found himself on the edge of the Endless Seas, but before he could see the Seven Spirit Islands, he had already sensed an astonishing change in the sea.
Although the sea water was as murky as ever, it was now a slight tint of blue. And with his spiritual sense, he was able to detect small fish and other life in the waters. The fearsome sea beasts that originally lived in these waters were nowhere to be seen. And the most notable of all was the massive change in the nearby spiritual Qi.
After flying for half a day, Han Li eventually sensed a huge spiritual Qi source from a distance away as well as seven smaller spiritual Qi fluctuations nearby, the so-called Seven Spirit Islands.
Greatly curious, Han Li couldn’t help but fly faster.
When he could faintly make out a few dots on the sea, he saw a small groups of cultivators floating in front of them. They comprised five Foundation Establishment cultivators with one Core Formation cultivator acting as their leader, a woman in palace robes.
Han Li didn’t conceal any trace of himself and met the group of cultivators directly head on. Naturally, they welcomed him as soon as they saw him.
When the woman in a palace robes saw Han Li, she deeply bowed to him after a brief moment of surprise. She respectfully said, “Greetings Senior, I am a disciple of the Harmonious Bond Sect. I’ve received orders from my superiors to block off this section of the sea. Might I ask you what brings you here?”
Not responding to her, Han Li frowned and muttered, “Block off? It seems Fellow Daoist Sunreach was correct. There truly is a problem here.”
“Could it be that you’re Senior Han for the Drifting Cloud Sect?” After the woman took another look at Han Li’s face.
“That’s right, I’m Han Li. Master Sunreach had invited here. Will you have to make a report before I can enter?”
When the group of cultivators heard Han Li’s name, they were thrown into turmoil.