Chapter 1746: Encountering the Dark Beast Again
During this final period of time in the Vast Glacial Realm, Han Li didn't cultivate or prepare to break through any bottlenecks. Instead, he found another secluded mountain and carefully inspected the Spirit Refinement Technique with the golden seal text that he had just learned.
Even that mysterious energy back in the restriction had been unable to push him to the Body Integration Stage, so there was naturally no way that a breakthrough could take place through more conventional methods.
After all, he had progressed up two stages in rapid succession, so he had to consolidate both his mental state and newly gained magic power for a long time. Only then would he truly be prepared to attempt a breakthrough to the Body Integration Stage.
In contrast, every other foreign being who had ventured into this realm had all been stuck at the pinnacle of the Spatial Tempering Stage for countless years. Only after determining that there was no way for them to make breakthroughs in the Spirit Realm did they decide to risk venturing into the Vast Glacial Realm.
Furthermore, according to some rumors, the final month or two before the closing of the Vast Glacial Realm was when the spirit veins in this realm released its richest spiritual Qi. As such, attempting breakthroughs during this time would likely increase one's chances of success.
Thus, all of the foreign beings who entered this realm either went straight into cultivation to prepare for a breakthrough, or scoured the Vast Glacial Realm for all types of rare and precious materials and treasures before attempting breakthroughs during the final months.
There was also another category of beings such as Fairy Yue, who had entered the Vast Glacial Realm with an ulterior motive to begin with.
In any case, no matter which category one belonged to, everyone would begin attempting breakthroughs during the final month or two.
Han Li was unique in that he was the only one who had entered the Vast Glacial Realm prior to reaching the late-Spatial Tempering Stage, and the astonishing progress he had since made had never been seen even throughout history, so he was naturally an exception to this.
However, the golden seal text truly was very profound; it took Han Li around a month just to comprehend the simplest part of the cultivation art, and a lot of this was simply an explanation, as well as words of praise for the cultivation art.
Han Li finally understood why Fairy Yue had proclaimed this cultivation art to be so troublesome.
According to the parts that Han Li had deciphered, the Spirit Refinement Technique seemed to be quite an extraordinary cultivation art even in the True Immortal Realm. It had even incorporated some laws of heaven and earth, and once successfully mastered, one's spiritual sense would instantly receive an incredible boost.
The cultivation art was split up into three stages. Mastering the first stage could double one's spiritual sense, mastering the second stage could quadruple one's spiritual sense, and mastering the third stage could enhance one's spiritual sense by eightfold or even more.
Han Li was naturally quite astonished by the enormous enhancements being outlined, and it was certainly quite plausible that this Spirit Refinement Technique was quite extraordinary, even in True Immortal Realm.
However, just as Fairy Yue had stated, the conditions required to cultivate this technique were indeed extremely rigorous.
There weren't many conditions, and the minimum cultivation base requirement was only the Deity Transformation Stage, but one of the prerequisites was that one had to possess a sufficiently powerful body and spiritual sense so they could handle the immense backlash from the cultivation art.
If one's spiritual sense were to be multiplied by this cultivation art, but their body and spiritual sense weren't powerful enough to handle such a drastic boost, then they would instantly self-detonate and perish.
According to the guidelines stipulated by the cultivation art, one had to possess spiritual sense that was around twice as powerful as that of others at the same cultivation base if they wanted to cultivate the first stage. The requirements stipulated for one's physical body were even more diabolical; even the extreme outliers in terms of physical constitution would only just barely satisfy the outlined conditions.
It was extremely rare for anyone to be able to fulfill even one aspect of these two sets of conditions, and those who fulfilled both sets of conditions were virtually non-existent in the Spirit Realm.
After all, most cultivators either excelled in one aspect or another, or were far from satisfying the conditions in both areas.
As for the second and third stages, the requirements were even more insane.
Fairy Yue was someone who specialized in magic power cultivation, which was why she had been so disappointed upon seeing these conditions. However, just as she had deduced, the second half of the cultivation art did indeed provide a solution.
This consisted of two recipes for pills that Han Li had never heard of before. One of them was known as the Body Fulfillment Pill, while the other was known as the Soul Condensing Pill.
According to the recipes, one of the pills could enhance one's spiritual sense while the other bolstered one's physical body. Consumption of those pills over a long period of time could slowly allow one to satisfy the conditions required to cultivate the Spirit Refinement Technique.
Of course, such extraordinary pills couldn't be found in the Spirit Realm.
The two pills recipes were enclosed in an extremely detailed manner, and even the specific refinement process had been outlined. However, none of the main ingredients used were ones that Han Li had ever heard of. Hence, it would be next to impossible to refine these two types of pills in the Spirit Realm.
After inspecting the conditions required to cultivate the Spirit Refinement Technique, Han Li was quite astonished, but he also heaved a sigh of relief.
He was pursuing the path of simultaneous cultivation, and his spiritual sense was far more powerful than that of others with the same cultivation base due to the Great Development Technique he had cultivated in the past. Furthermore, with his Provenance True Devil Arts and some body refinement pills he had consumed, his physical body was also insanely powerful. As such, he was capable of mastering the first stage even as he currently was.
For the second stage, as long as he could master the first stage, his enhanced spiritual sense would most likely be able to just barely satisfy the conditions. In terms of his physical body, if he could cultivate his Provenance True Devil Arts to the extreme and also had some luck come his way, then it wasn't a hopeless endeavor for him to satisfy the relevant conditions, either.
As for the third stage, Han Li could only stroke his chin with a wry smile on his face as he inspected the required conditions. In any case, being able to double his spiritual sense through the Spirit Refinement Technique would naturally be extremely useful.
Not taking into account anything else, if he could master this first stage, he estimated that his chances in battle against Body Integration Stage beings would increase by at least 20%. Thus, time slowly passed by as Han Li studied the Spirit Refinement Technique. On this day, Han Li was meditating within the belly of the mountain when a buzzing sound suddenly rang out from his storage bracelet.
His heart stirred as he hurriedly opened his eyes and looked down at the storage bracelet, just in time to see three balls of golden and silver spiritual light emerge from within it.
These were none other than the three Vast Glacial Badges.
The three badges swayed slightly before vanishing into specks of spiritual light right before his eyes.
The ground then began to tremor slightly, and the world's origin Qi in the nearby area was also thrown into disarray.
"Is it time?" he murmured to himself as spiritual light flashed from his body, and he flew away as a streak of azure light.
Moments later, the azure light receded in the air above the mountain, and Han Li appeared with his gaze directed upward.
Five-colored clouds had appeared in the sky over the Vast Glacial Realm, and they were churning violently amid gusts of fierce winds. The tremors running through the ground were also growing stronger as rocks and stones rolled down the mountain, and some of the trees were also being tipped onto their sides.
All types of flying and land-dwelling beasts rushed out of the mountain before escaping toward flat ground as quickly as they could.
Han Li clasped his hands behind his back and slowly closed his eyes with a solemn look on his face as he sensed the violently surging world's origin Qi around him.
Prior to entering the Vast Glacial Realm, he had been told that these phenomena were signs that indicated that the Vast Glacial Realm was beginning to close.
After half a day at most, outsiders like them would be forcibly ejected by the power of laws in this realm.
As such, they had left behind their own marks on the formation prior to departing, and they were also carrying special treasures that could resonate with the formation, thereby ensuring that they would be sent back to where they had first departed from.
Han Li thought back to all of the rewards he had reaped during his time in the Vast Glacial Realm while sensing the astonishing changes taking place around him, and all of a sudden, his expression changed slightly.
He opened his eyes in a surprised manner before turning toward a certain direction. There, two streaks of light, one golden and one white, were hurtling toward him beneath the layer of five-color clouds in the sky.
The two streaks of light were quite dim, but the white light was clearly more powerful than the golden light, and the latter was being hunted down by the former.
The streak of golden light up ahead struck Han Li with a sense of familiarity, and blue light flashed through his eyes, allowing him to see the two creatures within the streaks of light, upon which a surprised look appeared on his face.
There was a giant golden wolf within the golden streaks of light, and it was fleeing with all its might. Its fur was ragged and in tatters all over its body, and it was none other than the Dark Beast Monarch that Han Li had encountered twice before already.
The white light that was giving chase contained a winged white tiger monster, and it was also in a rather sorry state, but it was determined to hunt down the Dark Beast Monarch.
The two flew through the air, one after another, and due to the fact that both of them were completely spent and Han Li was concealing his aura, both of them failed to notice him.
A series of thoughts raced through Han Li's mind, yet before he had a chance to decide what he wanted to do, a low roar that was filled with eagerness and anxiety suddenly rang out from within his sleeve.
The sound came from the Leopard Kirin Beast in Han Li's spirit beast bracelet, and it seemed to be reacting very strongly to the two oncoming beasts.
Han Li's heart stirred slightly as he sensed the Leopard Kirin Beast's reaction. He naturally thought back to how the beast had devoured several high-grade Demon Beast demon cores, resulting in changes that he still couldn't quite comprehend even to this day.
Thus, a cold look appeared in his eyes as he turned toward the streak of golden light in the distance.
A loud thunderclap rang out as a pair of wings appeared on his back, and he vanished as an azure and white thread in a flash.
In the next instant, spatial fluctuations erupted above the Dark Beast Monarch, and a giant golden figure with three heads and six arms appeared. The golden figure's six arms swept through the air, and six pillars of golden light erupted forth like lightning, reaching the Dark Beast Monarch in the blink of an eye.
The Dark Beast Monarch's early-Body Integration Stage powers should've allowed it to evade these attacks, even if it had been caught off guard, but it was currently a completely spent force with less than a tenth of its magic power remaining.
As such, even though it tried to evade with all its might, it was still struck by three of the pillars of golden light.
A rumbling boom rang out as piercing golden light inundated the Dark Beast Monarch's body.
Immediately thereafter, spatial fluctuations erupted up above once again, and a giant black mountain that was over 10,000 feet tall appeared alongside a giant silver ruler, both of which then crashed down in unison without any delay.