Chapter 2034: Devilish Auction
Han Li appraised the wisp of green Qi for a while before a burst of silver flames erupted out of the same fingertip to envelop it.
However, the green Qi remained completely unaffected by the silver flames regardless of how violently they burned.
Han Li's expression changed slightly upon seeing this, and the silver flames instantly dissipated. He then flicked his finger, and the wisp of green Qi shot forth as a streak of green light, piercing through the light barriers on the opposing wall with ease.
Han Li faltered slightly upon seeing this. He was only trying to flick the green Qi away, so he certainly didn't think that it would be this powerful.
All of a sudden, spatial fluctuations erupted, and the green streak of light shot forth directly toward Han Li.
Han Li was naturally rather taken aback by this development, but his response was very fast. Golden light flashed from his hand as he caught the oncoming streak of green light, but his expression immediately darkened upon opening his fingers, only to find that the green light was nowhere to be found.
The green light had completely disregarded his immensely powerful body and burrowed into his hand without any impediment.
Han Li immediately inspected his own internal condition using his spiritual sense, only to find that the wisp of green Qi was currently situated in his dantian in a completely calm and stable manner.
Han Li's brows furrowed slightly as he swept up the green using an enormous burst of true essence, then forced it out of his body again.
On this occasion, the green Qi was only expelled several feet out of his body before shooting back in a flash.
The true essence enveloping it was unable to impede it in the slightest!
Han Li's heart jolted as he instantly conjured up a golden barrier of protective spiritual light, and at the same time, blue light flashed within his eyes as he stared intently at the oncoming streak of green light.
The green light pierced through his protective spiritual light as if it didn't even exist, then immediately returned to his dantian, leaving him completely bewildered.
After that, no matter what he tried to expel the green Qi, everything ended in failure, and he couldn't destroy or refine it, either.
The wisp of green Qi seemed to have identified his body as a home; regardless of how far away it was forced out or what kind of restriction was used on it, it would instantly disappear before returning to his body.
After failing to trap the green Qi even with the Purple Word Cauldron, Han Li's expression had become very strained.
It didn't seem like this green Qi was causing any harm to his body, but how could he rest knowing that there was a type of foreign energy residing in his body?
The fact that the green Qi was able to return to his body with unerring accuracy every single time indicated that it had somehow locked onto his soul. In that case, there was only one more thing that he could try.
Having made his decision, Han Li made a hand seal and began to chant an incantation, upon which a golden projection with three heads and six arms appeared behind him.
The projection then took on a substantial form, following which Han Li let loose a low cry and laid a hand onto the top of his own head.
A dull thump rang out as a ball of black light vanished into the golden body in a flash; it was none other than his second Nascent Soul!
Immediately thereafter, Han Li pointed a finger toward the golden body, then drew upon his true essence to expel the wisp of green Qi once again.
On this occasion, it vanished into the second Nascent Soul within the golden body, and situated itself within the Nascent Soul's dantian again.
There the wisp of green Qi remained without displaying any sign of returning to Han Li's body, and he heaved a long sigh of relief upon seeing this.
However, he didn't stop there. After that, he flicked a series of incantation seals toward the golden body with his fingers, and the second Nascent Soul appeared to be seated in a completely still manner within the golden body, but the devilish Qi within its body was surging and forming a series of black runes. These runes enveloped the wisp of green Qi and instantly formed a black crystalline ball to seal the green Qi.
The golden body then crumbled away and vanished to reveal the second Nascent Soul, which wore a calm expression as it joined its palms before bringing them apart again.
The black crystalline ball emerged, and was caught by the second Nascent Soul, following which it vanished into Han Li's body as a ball of black light.
Han Li made a brief assessment of the second Nascent Soul's condition, and he was quite relieved to see that it had remained unharmed.
Even though he couldn't completely expel the green Qi, it shouldn't pose him any issues now that it was under the second Nascent Soul's control. Once he found a way to eradicate or refine it in the future, he'd be able to take care of it permanently.
However, during this period of time, it would be wise for him to use his second Nascent Soul as little as possible in case something were to happen with that green Qi.
After that, Han Li turned his attention back to the ball of light that was enshrouded within the golden runes, and he discovered that he had absorbed less than a tenth of it, but his true essence had been enhanced to the same extent as seven or eight years of arduous cultivation.
If he were to convert this entire ball of light into tree essence, it would be able to save him over 100 years of cultivation, so he certainly couldn't give up on it.
After a brief pause for contemplation, Han Li swept a sleeve through the air to release an antiquated shimmering golden vial.
The vial was tipped over, and a burst of five-colored light was released out of its opening, which sucked the grey ball of light into the vial.
The vial then flew up Han Li's sleeve and was carefully stowed away. He had already decided that he was going to do his best to search for more of these crystalline beads in the Elder Devil Realm. If he could find enough of those beads and address the issue of the green Qi, perhaps he would be able to reach the pinnacle of the late-Body Integration Stage in a very short time. If he could do that, then that would be a brilliant opportunity.
Han Li was growing rather excited as he thought about this, and he raised a hand to pick up the crystalline bead again. After injecting his spiritual sense into it, he discovered that it was completely empty, and all of the peculiar energy that it had contained had disappeared.
After a brief hesitation, he stowed the bead into his storage bracelet along with the two halves of the piece of Foreign Devilish Metal.
Perhaps he would be able to use these items in the future to find the true origins of that grey ball of light.
The grey ball of light had the incredible property of being able to be directly converted into true essence, but aside from people like Han Li, who were using special cultivation arts such as the Provenance True Devil Arts, there were very few people who could actually take advantage of this type of energy. On top of that, not only did one have to be using a special cultivation art of this nature, they had to possess the ability to sense this type of energy. In Han Li's case, it was a combination of his spirit eye ability and the profound feeling he had been struck by in his spiritual sense.
Han Li was very pleased with the rewards he had reaped, and after completing his examination of everything, he began to meditate.
He had decided to scour all of the shops in Blood Crow City during the next few days to see if he could reap some other rewards, and also to see if he could find more of these crystalline beads in other pieces of Foreign Devilish Metal.
An uneventful night passed by, and the next morning, Han Li emerged from the inn in a calm manner before slowly visiting the shops along the nearest street.
Blood Crow City couldn't compare with an actual city such as Deep Heaven City, but it still had thousands of shops, and after two days, he had only managed to visit less than half of them.
He had reaped many unexpected rewards during this time, and had also found some pieces of Foreign Devilish Metal, but didn't discover any other crystalline beads like the one he had found.
However, Han Li wasn't all that disheartened by this. After all, something that could directly enhance his true essence was bound to be very rare, and it would be quite strange if he could find such things in this city in large quantities.
At the same time, Han Li had gathered some information about the imminent auction that was going to be held in the city.
This was a customary biannual auction held in Blood Crow City, and during every auction, the high-grade devilish beings who were passing through or staying in the city would bring out some precious items to be auctioned.
In particular, those who had hunted for devilish beasts on the grassland would all sell the devilish beast materials that weren't useful to them during the Blood Crow City auction, then purchase useful treasures and pills with those earnings. After that, they would venture into the grassland again to continue hunting devilish beasts, thereby saving a lot of time.
Due to the emergence of this beast tide, the number of high-grade devilish beings in the city was far higher than normal, so the quantity and quality of the auction items were also going to be significantly higher than prior auctions.
Apparently, there were even going to be several Divine Devilish Treasures and other legendary treasures and materials being sold.
Han Li naturally quite interested and was planning to attend this auction, both to see if there was anything that would catch his eye, as well as to sell off the redundant devilish treasures in his collection for some devil stones.
Even though these devil stones would have next to no effect on his cultivation, he was planning to stay in the Elder Devil Realm for up to several decades, so he naturally had to acquire some of these stones.
The auction was held three days after that, giving him just enough time to scour through most of the shops in the city.
The auction was held in a massive hall in a corner of Blood Crow City, and Han Li arrived in a cloak that concealed his entire body.
He had also altered his own aura, and after handing over a few devil stones to the devilish guards at the entrance, he entered the auction.
The hall was circular in shape, and it was shaped like a tiered funnel from top to bottom.
Aside from a series of round azure stone seats in the hall, there was only a black rectangular stone platform at the center. There were diagrams of unidentifiable beasts engraved onto the walls, and in no more than 15 minutes, the entire hall was completely filled by around 3,000 to 4,000 high-grade devilish beings.
Many of these high-grade devilish beings were also wearing large cloaks or had concealed their features with devilish Qi, so Han Li wasn't looking out of place at all.
After a short while, when there were virtually no empty seats in the entire hall, a small door on the bottom level was opened, and a humanoid figure emerged from within before arriving on the rectangular stone platform.
All of the chatter in the venue immediately died down.