Chapter 1165: Kun Peng Feather
The voice of the small child within the cauldron was coming from none other than that avatar of the Endless Sky Beast, which Han Li had drawn into his cauldron during his battle with Saintess Tianlan.
This beast was once just a primitive demon beast with only basic survival instincts, yet after spending over a century in the Heavenvoid Cauldron, it had developed intelligence and even recovered most of its memories from its time in the Spirit Realm. However, it was trapped in the Heavenvoid Cauldron so it naturally couldn't escape. As such, it had no choice but to reside there.
After Han Li reached the late-Nascent Soul Stage in the Heavenvoid Hall, he immediately refined his two Divine Spirit Treasures again.
After mastering the second layer of the Artifact Imprint Technique, he was finally able to open the Heavenvoid Cauldron.
The avatar of the Endless Sky Beast immediately unleashed some sort of movement technique from the Spirit Realm, allowing it to escape right before Han Li's eyes and travel a distance of over 1,000 feet in the blink of an eye. At such an incredible speed, if it were to flash a few more times, even Han Li wouldn't have been able to chase it down.
However, an incredible sequence of events ensued thereafter.
For some reason, after the beast had traveled about 2,000 to 3,000 feet away from the Heavenvoid Cauldron, azure light suddenly erupted from its body and the cauldron in unison, upon which the Endless Sky Beast abruptly disappeared, only to reappear back inside the Heavenvoid Cauldron in the next instant. It appeared that it was unable to leave the cauldron.
Han Li was naturally ecstatic upon seeing this.
Only then did he discover that due to the fact that the beast had resided in the Heavenvoid Cauldron for too long, its aura had already been assimilated by the cauldron, thereby placing it in a situation akin to the one that Silvermoon was in.
However, it wasn't an insubstantial entity and nor was it the artifact spirit of the Heavenvoid Cauldron. As such, aside from its inability to get far away from the cauldron, it maintained complete autonomy and didn't have to answer to Han Li's commands.
Thus, Han Li sealed the beast and tossed it into the cauldron again. He was planning to think carefully about the matter before deciding what to do with this Endless Sky Beast avatar.
However, the Endless Sky Beast had suddenly spoken as he was investigating the golden talisman, and was proclaiming this beveled silver text to be runes found only in the Spirit Realm.
Han Li was naturally very surprised to hear this.
"Haha! Deity Transformation Stage? Why would I want to get there? Here in your human world, it'll be impossible for me to reach that stage even after tens of thousands of years." The small child suddenly began to chortle boisterously within the cauldron.
"You're telling me you don't want to advance your cultivation base? Do you think I'm a gullible three-year-old child?" Han Li was very skeptical.
"Looks like you won't believe me until I disclose some things to you, little boy. Let me divulge some information, then; I was indeed rather renowned in the demon race of the Spirit Realm, and my cultivation base had reached a stage that's completely unfathomable to you. However, I went through extensive effort to send my avatar to the human world; do you think I did all this just so I can become the pitiful guardian beast of the human race? Back in the Spirit Realm, I have tens of thousands of demon underlings, and the Spell Warriors are nothing to me." The Endless Sky Beast made no effort to hide his disdain toward the Spell Warriors.
Han Li's brows furrowed, but he didn't say anything.
The small child continued, "I sent an avatar to this world in order to prepare for a tribulation that I'll face in 10,000 years. If my true body is unable to transcend this tribulation and my soul is destroyed, I'll at least be able to live on through my avatar in this world, so I won't completely cease to exist. Prior to that, there's no need for me to cultivate too quickly. Otherwise, if I reach the Deity Transformation Stage in this world as well, the tribulation will also impact this avatar of mine."
"I see. That is indeed a self-preservation method. Do all of the powerful beings in the Spirit Realm do the same thing?" Han Li asked in a slightly skeptical voice.
"Hmph, do you think sending an avatar down into this world is an easy task? Not only is there a cultivation base prerequisite that must be satisfied, you also have to be proficient in techniques that will allow your avatar to leave the realm you're situated in without being harmed, and there are very few of those techniques. On top of that, the expenditure of a Realm Transcending Stone is required to defy the boundary between realms in order to transport your avatar to this world, and that's a treasure that's extremely rare even in the Spirit Realm. Furthermore, this process is an extremely perilous one and I don't even know if the success rate is as high as one in 10. With each and every failure, the avatar will disappear in the chaos between realms, thereby expending a portion of your soul. Each time I've failed, I've had to go into seclusion for over 1,000 years at a time to recover the soul fragment that I lost. Prior to this, I'd already made seven or eight attempts over the span of 10,000 years and luckily, I was able to succeed with this attempt. In comparison, it's easier to directly teleport magic powers and attacks to this world through the barrier between realms," the Endless Sky Beast harrumphed coldly.
"Why are you telling me all this?" Han Li asked.
"Hehe, the answer to that is very simple. I'm just trying to tell you that we have no conflict of interests whatsoever. Back when I was drawn into this spirit treasure of yours, I hadn't developed any intelligence yet, and had been temporarily used by those Spell Warriors. Furthermore, my cultivation base won't be progressing to the Deity Transformation Stage anytime soon, so you won't have to worry about me taking revenge on you or anything like that," the beast chuckled.
"In that case, why don't I just destroy you right now? Won't that be a better course of action for me?" A cold expression suddenly appeared on Han Li's face.
The voice within the cauldron immediately fell silent. However, moments later, the small child began again, "My cultivation base is far inferior to yours at this point, so that's certainly a plausible course of action for you. However, don't forget that I'm the avatar of a powerful demon from the Spirit Realm. I've mastered some secret techniques that are far beyond the realm of your imagination. If you try to kill me, I'll be sure to leave you with some severe wounds to remember me by. Even if you don't die, I have many ways to imprint a mark onto your soul. If you don't plan on ever ascending to the Spirit Realm and decide to pass away in the human world, then you'll be fine, but if you ever go to the Spirit Realm, even if you resurrect yourself through possession, my true body will still be able to find you. When that time comes..."
The Endless Sky Beast didn't complete its sentence, but the threat it was delivering was already very apparent.
Han Li was at a loss for words.
With his current cultivation base and foundation of knowledge, he naturally knew that some of the beast's words were deceitful, yet most of them rang true.
As such, it really was rather difficult to deal with. He didn't want to make such a powerful enemy in the Spirit Realm prior to his ascension. Furthermore, judging from what this beast was saying, it's true body would most likely be able to destroy him about as easily as it could crush an ant.
As for the threat that the beast had delivered about leaving him with severe wounds, that was something that he didn't pay much heed to. The beast was unable to get away from the Heavenvoid Cauldron, so as long as he was well prepared, he wasn't afraid of suffering any backlash.
Han Li continued to fly through the air at a leisurely pace, but his brows were tightly furrowed and he had been silent for a long while.
The Endless Sky Beast in the Heavenvoid Cauldron had also fallen silent, seemingly as if it were trying to give Han Li an opportunity to think carefully about his options.
"What's the deal with that Kun Peng feather you were referring to? Does it have any special uses?" Han Li suddenly changed the subject.
"The Luo Mian Beast is a type of heavenly demon spirit, all of which were born with the creation of the world, which means that they're all primordial living beings that were born from chaos. In a sense, it wouldn't be incorrect to call them deities. I'm sure you can imagine how valuable something from its body is. Even my true body in the Spirit Realm wouldn't dare to go near such a powerful demon spirit. However, these Luo Mian Beasts are all sworn enemies of one another. On this occasion, it must've discovered the Luo Mian in your human world, which prompted it to attack through the barrier between realms to destroy this beast. Theoretically, the two demon spirits should be comparable in power, but the Luo Mian Beast of this world isn't handicapped by the barrier between realms, which led to the Kun Peng falling to a disadvantage. You're extremely fortunate to have stumbled upon their battlefield. The Heavenroaming Kun Peng is a wind-attribute demon spirit and it can master all of the wind-related heavenly laws of this world from birth. The feather it shed is a little damaged, but it's perfect for refining a wind-attribute spirit treasure. If you can successfully refine it, the treasure will definitely be far superior to a normal spirit treasure. I recall that someone in the Spirit Realm once refined a Fire Dragon Cover spirit treasure using a Fire Kirin scale, and its power ranked among the top 100 of all spirit treasures."
"Top 100?" Han Li was rather taken aback upon hearing this.
"Don't underestimate what it means to make it into the top 100. I know that you have another spirit treasure known as the Eight Spirit Ruler, as well as several other spirit treasure replicas. What I have to tell you is that even though both your Eight Spirit Ruler and that Sevenflame Fan are considered to be rare treasures, they're very much of a low-grade tier in the context of spirit treasures. Only the spirit treasures that can rank on the Chaotic Myriad Spirit Roll can be truly counted as a Divine Spirit Treasures. All others can only be referred to as spirit treasures, yet those that can make it onto the Chaotic Myriad Spirit Roll have to at least rank among the top 100 spirit treasures" the Endless Sky Beast explained.
"The Chaotic Myriad Spirit Roll? Forget it, I have no interest in learning about such things at this point. From what you're saying, it sounds like the Divine Spirit Treasures that are considered to be very rare in the human world are available in abundance in the Spirit Realm. I don't recall the ancient cultivators of the past crafting all that many Divine Spirit Treasures. Does the deal you're about to propose have something to do with this Kun Peng feather?" Han Li stroked his chin as a serious look appeared on his face.
"You can unleash a lightning movement technique with your Thunderstorm Wings, but they don't appear to have been completely refined, right? And there seems to be a hint of wind-attribute spiritual power contained within them, am I right?" The Endless Sky Beast suddenly changed the subject to Han Li's Thunderstorm Wings.
Han Li was naturally slightly taken aback by the abrupt turn that this conversation had taken.
"What do you mean by that? It is indeed true that when the Thunderstorm Wings were first refined, the intention was for them to be able to use both the powers of wind and lightning. However, only my Divine Devilbane Lightning can be used, so I can only unleash a lightning movement technique. As for whether it's been completely refined or not, I'm not particularly sure," Han Li replied truthfully."I can tell you a way to use the Kun Peng feather to refine your Thunderstorm Wings into a spirit treasure. The feather itself contains wind-related heavenly laws of the world, so you'll be able to use the power of wind even without any wind-attribute spiritual power. Due to the limitations on your cultivation base and available materials, you won't be able to refine a Divine Spirit Treasure straight away, but it should be easy to refine a normal low-grade spirit treasure with the use of this spirit feather," the Endless Sky Beast announced in a haughty manner.