Chapter 983: Black Crystals
Nearly a month later at the bottom of the Yin Yang Cave, Han Li stood in a giant wind cavern and held his hands in an incantation gesture. A dozen golden swords were revolving around him, shredding the countless moths flooding him into thin lines of black Qi.
The moths were several inches long and completely black. With each flap of their wings, they released thin blades of wind towards him, but they were all easily blocked by the golden light.
But with each fallen moth, two came to take its place. Han Li grew sullen with annoyance. He tossed a spirit beast pouch from his waist and summoned a swarm of sparkling golden beetles into the air.
When the black moths met the Gold Devouring Beetles, they suddenly began to shrink back as more of their numbers fell to the ground. When he saw this, he withdrew a majority of his flying swords and stepped into the depths of the cavern.
The Yin winds here were blowing with far greater frequency and blocked his more powerful spiritual sense from seeing even ten meters ahead. At the very least, he didn’t have to worry about being harassed by the moths.
After walking to the approximate center, his eyes shined with blue light, allowing him to see the nearby surroundings with clarity. But when he looked in a certain direction, he couldn’t help but gasp.
He walked sixty meters before tossing out a moonlight stone and carrying it in the air with a mist of azure light, illuminating ten meters around him.
Underneath the white light, a skull-sized black crystal was half embedded in the wall.
But what was astonishing was that the gem was flickering with a haunting light and would release black moths without end, swarming towards Han Li and the dazzling moonlight stone in a mad rush. However, the Gold Devouring Beetles had intercepted them midway, but when each moth was killed, they simply faded away as if they never existed.
“This is the third one, but it is able to use the nearby Yin Qi to create Dark Yin Moths. How peculiar,” Han Li muttered.
When Han Li took a closer look, he saw the black crystal release a flare of black light. A pop sounded out, followed by the appearance of a meter-wide moth. It fiercely glared at Han Li with crimson eyes.
Han Li raised his brow at the sight and flicked his finger, releasing a bolt of golden lightning and dispersing the moth in an instant. Although it was certain to have a few peculiar abilities, the Divine Devilbane Lightning was its natural nemesis.
Then, he reached out for the crystal without any hesitation, and a large hand of sparkling blue light appeared in front of him. With a bang, the crystal was taken out from the wall.
In the instant the crystal was grasped, the surrounding Yin winds were decreased by over half. All the moths had turned into black Qi in a bright flash and blew away in the wind.
Han Li didn’t appear particularly surprised by this and instead mulled over the two smaller crystals he found earlier in other wind caverns. These strange crystals caused Han Li to click his tongue in amazement, but he decided to leave the matter for later.
After his first return to Old Man Fu for another application of the Dark Violet Pearl’s protective light, he split up with Bai Yaoyi. Now that she wasn’t following him, Han Li made full use of his abilities.
Over the last few days, while he slowly headed deeper into the cave, he was several times faster than the others. He also came across high-grade ghosts with greater frequency, but his flying swords and golden lightning made short work of them. He hadn’t needed to use the Weeping Soul Beast even once.
It was starting to make sense why high-grade cultivators hadn’t explored the Yin Yang Cave. Deeper inside, he had found little, apart from a few abandoned magic tools and inferior ore veins.
But several days ago when he pursued a ghost, he unintentionally entered a small wind cavern. He initially had little interest in exploring it as the Umbra Yin Horse they were looking for shouldn’t be able to survive in a place with fierce Yin Winds. In addition, the frequent Yin winds in the cave would force him to consume even greater amounts of magic, even with the protection of the Dark Violet Pearl’s light. As such, it would prove quite difficult of him to tread deeper inside, but after he discovered the first black crystal, he became interested in exploring deeper. With the Divine Devilbane Lightning protecting him and the Myriad Spirit Milk to replenish his magic power, he also had little to fear.
Han Li hadn’t seen these black crystals before in any records. Although they resembled Devil Essence Diamonds at first glance, they were completely different.
They weren’t nearly as hard as Devil Essence Diamonds and didn’t contain devilish essence either. They appeared to be strange wind-attribute gems that were condensed inside these caverns for countless years, but they also contained large quantities of Yin Qi.
When Han Li searched through tens of wind caverns, he only managed to find three of them. The first two he found were the size of a fist, but the third and most recent one he found was the size of a skull and could produce ghosts.
After examining the gem for a long while and finding that it hadn’t made the slightest reaction, he stuck several restriction talismans on it before placing it in a large jade box and into his storage pouch.
After a cursory search through the large wind cavern to make sure he hadn’t missed anything, he withdrew to the passage where he came.
He traveled another kilometer and was searching through another small cavern, eventually finding that the tunnel became increasingly narrow. In the end, he was met with a wall of ice.
Han Li sighed but still continued forward. He raised his hand and released a streak of azure light, sinking deep into the icy wall. He didn’t stop there, and pressed his hand against it and swept his spiritual sense through.
After finding no mechanisms or restrictions, he turned around and moved back without another thought. He was several times faster on the way back than when he was exploring forward.
Although he didn’t know the exact shape of the Yin Yang Cave, they should be close to the heart of the cave given the variety of ghosts they’ve encountered. However, none of them had yet to discover any trace of the Umbra Yin Horse, much to Han Li’s impatience.
Since he had hurried to refine the Triflame Fan in preparation for this trip, he didn’t want to return empty-handed.
It was an extremely difficult affair for a Nascent Soul cultivator to breakthrough to a later stage. All cultivators who ascended to mid-Nascent Soul stage in the Heavenly South were blessed geniuses, and of these talents, only three were able to break through to late-Nascent Soul stage. And although there were more late-Nascent Soul cultivators in the Great Jin, they were still rarely seen.
As a result, Han Li had considered using the Copulation Essence Arts with Mu Peiling to break through the bottleneck to late-Nascent Soul stage, but it wasn’t a guarantee. Now that the Nascent Cultivating Pill appeared before him, he couldn’t allow the opportunity to pass him by.
If they truly couldn’t find the Umbra Yin Horse, he would have to see if he could acquire the medical formula of the Nascent Cultivating Pill from Old Man Fu. Although his chances were slim, if he could acquire the formula, he could try looking the Umbra Yin Horse elsewhere. After all, there were many places in the world where Yin Qi naturally gathered.
Han Li’s mind mulled over this matter as he flew through the tunnel.
But suddenly, his expression stirred and his attention turned to his front. A flicker of green light flashed in front of him and was flying in his direction. He instantly waved his sleeve in response, releasing a mist of azure in front of him. The green light was captured by the mist and dragged in front of him, revealing a gleaming sword that had a red jade slip attached to it.
Han Li pursed his lips and raised his hand, taking the slip into his hand before tossing the sword back into the air. The green sword let out a ring, circling in the air before flying through Yin winds without a trace.
Han Li ignored it and instead sank his spiritual sense into the jade slip.
“They’ve found traces of the Umbra Yin Horse!” A short moment later, Han Li withdrew from the jade slip with a smile. Then with a flip of his hand, he summoned a white formation plate.
He tapped it and in a flash of azure light, it became as glossy as a mirror. Four differently colored lights appeared on different places of the plate.
He looked at the positions of the light and immediately put it away before flying forward at greater speed.
Half a day later, Han Li arrived at a four-way intersection, finding Cultivator Yuan and Old Man Fu meditating there. The Dark Violet Pearl was floating motionlessly above the old man’s head.
After Han Li arrived, he asked, “Fellow Daoist Yuan, you’ve found it?”
“That’s right,” Cultivator Yuan chuckled and his face wore a trace of excitement, “The Umbra Yin Horse is in this passageway, but it is extremely cunning. I wasn’t able to capture it, and could only block the way out and wait for you all to arrive.”
“Good,” Han Li nodded with a smile, “So long as we know of its whereabouts, it will only be a matter of time.”
Old Man Fu happily said, “Junior Martial Sister Chang and Fellow Daoist Bai are still quite far away. Let’s wait. When we’re all present, the capture will be easier.”
When Han Li heard this, he felt relieved and also took a seat.
Several hours later, the black-robed woman and Bai Yaoyi rushed over. After they heard the news, they were also overjoyed. With several simple spell formations placed down at the passage entrance, they promptly set off inside.
Not long after, a dark light suddenly flashed from the ground underneath, followed by the emergence of three pitch-black dried corpses.
The chests of the corpses were all hollow and their bodies lacked any flesh, but their eyes shined with a chilling green light as they stared in the direction of Han Li’s party without the slightest emotion.