Silver ancient runes surfaced across the scales one by one, and after arranging themselves in the air, they quickly formed a short passage of text.
"Two years later! True Dragon Island! The Guang Ling Dao Fruit Assembly! This gathering is finally about to convene." Han Li gazed at the text that had appeared on the scales, a strange light flickering through his eyes.
"Heh, this gathering will surely bring together powerful experts from many other worlds. It should be well worth seeing. Besides, consuming a Guang Ling Dao Fruit grants one a temporary Guang Ling Dao Body, which would be of great benefit to my cultivation of several divine abilities. I must find a way to obtain one. The promise that Tian Fei'er made back then—it's time to call in that debt. Two years should be more than enough time to make a round trip to the Demon World. Before I leave, I should let Wan'er know first, so she doesn't worry too much." After pondering for a moment, Han Li finally murmured his decision to himself.
Without delay, he raised one hand toward empty space, and the silver scale flew up and vanished. His other hand flipped over, and an ancient green mirror appeared in it.
He tossed the mirror into the air before him, then rapidly traced a few strokes across its surface with a finger. A string of white text flashed and sank into it.
After that, Han Li waited quietly at the bow of the ship.
After only a brief moment, the surface of the ancient mirror rippled, and row after row of white text appeared across it.
Han Li merely glanced at it, and a faint smile surfaced at the corner of his lips.
His dual cultivation partner had offered no words of persuasion or dissuasion, but every line of her message was filled with reminders to be careful and cautious.
Han Li flicked his sleeve, a flash of green light passed, and the ancient mirror vanished into thin air.
Then the massive black ship rumbled, and Han Li surged forward at a speed several times faster than before.
…
Two months later, high above a desolate stretch of land in the Demon World that was entirely shrouded in a haze of gray, a streak of dark green sword light suddenly flickered and vanished, leaving behind a pale white spatial rift.
A figure flickered out from within the rift!
Han Li emerged slowly, a dark green wooden sword in hand.
His gaze swept around, and his brow furrowed slightly.
The area looked utterly unfamiliar—it was clearly a place he had never visited before.
His smooth entry into the Demon World this time was due to two factors. First, he had located the weakest node connecting the Demon World and the Human World. Second, his own Magical Power was formidable enough, and he possessed this Profound Heaven Spirit-Slaying Sword.
Back in the day, Mo Jianli had also been able to infiltrate the Demon World through a weak node, but the process had been nowhere near as simple and effortless as it was for Han Li—it had carried the risk of true destruction.
However, he had not come to the Demon World this time to sightsee. He was here to find the Bottle Spirit, and he cared not at all for his precise location within the realm. Once he had confirmed that no demon race creatures were anywhere nearby, he drew a light breath, then opened his mouth and spat out a ball of green light.
Within the radiance hovered a small green bottle, only a few inches tall.
Han Li uttered the word "Expand," and his ten fingers moved like a spinning wheel, tapping toward the small bottle.
The green bottle blurred for an instant, then swelled rapidly on the spot, transforming in the blink of an eye into something roughly a zhang in size. Dark green spirit patterns as thick as a finger lined its surface, each one strikingly clear.
At this point, Han Li flicked his sleeve, and over a hundred formation flags surged outward in a torrent. They shot off in every direction before silently vanishing from sight.
Han Li's hands shifted through a series of hand seals.
Immediately, a droning hum rang out through the surrounding void as countless multicolored runes materialized and swiftly arranged themselves into a massive light formation roughly an acre in size, encircling the enormous bottle at its very center.
Han Li began chanting incantations under his breath. His body drifted upward, and he rose to hover directly above the great bottle before blurring and settling into a seated, cross-legged position.
Below, as Han Li activated a certain secret technique, the giant bottle and the light formation beneath it began to pulse in unison, brightening and dimming together. After a thunderclap rang out from a clear sky, a pillar of dark green light erupted from the bottle's mouth, soaring into the heavens before vanishing beyond the clouds.
At the same moment, a bizarre wave of fluctuation rippled outward from the giant bottle, sweeping frantically in all directions.
Han Li's eyes slowly closed. Apart from the faint movement of his lips as he recited his incantations, he made no further move.
…
In a mysterious space deep within the Demon World, at the bottom of a pool half-filled with a pale silver liquid, several stone slabs beneath the surface suddenly blazed with brilliant light. A massive light formation flickered into existence, half-hidden and half-revealed.
At the center of the formation, several mysterious runes swirled and converged, and a pitch-black hole materialized out of thin air.
In the very next instant, the space within the hole rippled, and a pillar of dark green light shot outward.
With a single flash, the pillar pierced straight through the pool water and vanished into the very apex of the mysterious space.
…
Han Li's expression shifted, and his eyes snapped open with undisguised delight.
"There really is a resonance! The Bottle Spirit truly is in the Demon World! It seems this time, I've stumbled upon an extraordinary opportunity."
After withdrawing his hand seals, he sprang to his feet and gazed off toward the direction of the resonance, his entire face alight with excitement.
His body swayed suddenly on the spot. His hands swept outward in every direction, and with a muffled boom, the massive light formation collapsed and dissipated, transforming back into the hundred-plus formation flags that flew back to him.
The giant bottle was enveloped by a swirl of green radiance, shrank down on its own, and condensed into a dark green sphere of light that shot straight into his body.
Han Li stomped his foot, and the green light across his body intensified. He transformed into a streak of green radiance over a dozen zhang long and shot away at tremendous speed. After only two flickers, he vanished beyond the distant horizon.
From that point on, Han Li repeated his spell-casting every few days, pursuing the direction of his resonance day and night without rest.