Over the following days, Han Li personally guided Nangong Wan through every hall and pavilion of the Qingyuan Palace, letting her choose a side hall that suited her taste to serve as her personal residence for cultivation.
However, after Nangong Wan visited the Scripture Pavilion and the Myriad Treasures Hall, she was utterly dumbstruck by the sheer volume of rare esoteric technique manuals, and the countless magical artifacts, materials, and pills stored within.
With Han Li's numerous extraordinary encounters over the years, combined with the spoils he had reaped from slaying the hostile Mahayana cultivators, his accumulated wealth was such that perhaps only a handful of beings in the entire Spirit Realm could compare.
Such an overwhelming trove of treasures was far beyond what Nangong Wan—confined to the Small Spirit Heaven for so long—could have ever imagined.
Han Li smiled faintly and allowed Nangong Wan to carefully select several protective treasures from the collection. He then produced a few types of medicinal pills, and after handing over the restriction tokens for both locations, gave them freely to the woman, telling her to enter and leave these two important sites as she pleased whenever she had need.
Nangong Wan was naturally delighted by this and accepted everything without the slightest pretense of refusal.
In the time that followed, Han Li summoned several stewards of the Qingyuan Palace to handle certain pressing matters, dispatched search parties to seek out Ice Phoenix's whereabouts, and then took Nangong Wan on a tour of the entire Yuanhe Island and most of the Boundless Ocean.
For about a month, the two were inseparable like an ordinary mortal couple, displaying extraordinary affection and thoroughly enjoying their conjugal bliss.
But once they returned to the Qingyuan Palace, they each withdrew into seclusion one after the other.
All affairs on the island were once again entrusted to Hai Dashao.
Han Li sat cross-legged within a sealed chamber, protected layer upon layer by restrictions. Before him, three distinct objects hovered in midair, each emanating a faint spiritual glow: a golden-hued book page, a silver jade slip, and a red jade slip.
These were the unexpected gains from his recent journey. They recorded two secret arts from the immortal realm—the "Five Viscera Body Tempering Art" and the "Primordial Radiance Shield"—as well as a secret technique for refining the power of lightning.
Han Li glanced at all three, then furrowed his brow slightly and pointed a finger at the golden book page.
The object trembled faintly before transforming into a ball of golden light that flew straight into his sleeve.
The "Five Viscera Body Tempering Art" recorded in the Golden Threshold Jade Book was indeed profoundly mysterious, and mastering it would dramatically boost his strength. However, its cultivation speed was excruciatingly slow—truly jaw-dropping. It was absolutely not something he could slowly contemplate at a time like this. He would have to set it aside for later.
As for the remaining "Primordial Radiance Shield" and the refinement technique…
After a brief moment of deliberation, Han Li flicked his sleeve. A flash of radiance passed, and the pale silver jade slip vanished without a trace.
The "Primordial Radiance Shield," this immortal realm secret art, was inscribed in Golden Seal Script. Its content was extraordinarily abstruse and difficult to comprehend—simply mastering it thoroughly would require considerable time, to say nothing of the subsequent cultivation. It too was unsuitable for him to take up right now.
That left only the lightning power refinement technique.
Han Li stared fixedly at the crimson jade slip before him, turning the matter over in his mind.
He had already comprehended roughly eighty to ninety percent of this technique during his travels. The remaining portion should require only about a month to fully grasp.
Given that he already possessed the Evil-Repelling Divine Lightning, the actual refinement process shouldn't take too long either.
On the other hand, once this technique was combined with the lightning offering art he had already mastered, its power would far exceed what anyone might imagine. He was confident it would deliver a rather unexpected "grand surprise" to his future opponents.
Having made up his mind, Han Li no longer hesitated. He reached out with one hand toward the jade slip.
The object blurred instantly and landed silently in his fingers. He pressed it against his forehead.
A short while later, Han Li closed his eyes, his body motionless as a wooden sculpture.
Two months passed.
The jade slip that had been pressed against Han Li's forehead was long gone. In its place, thunderous booming erupted across the surface of his body as arcs of golden lightning coiled outward, streaming rapidly into a sphere of golden lightning forming before him. It swelled in size with alarming speed, expanding to the diameter of a large basin in mere moments.
*Poof.* Han Li's hands formed a rapid series of seals, and he opened his mouth to expel a wisp of silver spirit flame.
The flame merely circled the lightning sphere once before erupting into a raging sea of fire that engulfed it entirely.
Within the sea of flame, the lightning sphere emitted a deep, rumbling hum, spinning ceaselessly. Golden runes on its surface flickered wildly, and hints of purple-gold began to appear among them, as though some profoundly mysterious transformation had begun…
… …
At almost the exact same time, deep within a small mountain on the Thunder Continent, Yang Lu the True Spirit remained seated cross-legged with his eyes shut, positioned beside a green bottle no more than several inches tall. He appeared not to have moved at all throughout these past months.
Suddenly, the green bottle trembled slightly, its surface releasing a faint green glow while a trace of spatial fluctuations rippled outward.
Yang Lu's expression shifted. His eyes snapped open. After sweeping his gaze toward the green bottle, he immediately rose to his feet with a sway of his body, bowed slightly, and spoke with the utmost deference: "Congratulations, Master, on emerging from seclusion!"