A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality (Chapter 1401-Chapter 1600)

This was none other than the Azure Shifting Fruit core that Han Li had obtained during his time in the Tian Peng Race.

With this item, he'd be able to nurture Azure Shifting Fruits through the use of his small vial, then refine the legendary Heavenshifting Pill. He'd consume the Heavenshifting Pill with his Black Flame Pills, and if the former's enhancement effect were to activate, then the chances of him breaking through his bottleneck would be significantly increased.

Han Li held the fruit core between two fingers and carefully inspected it through narrowed eyes, then instantly cast his spiritual sense out of the secret chamber.

Moments later, the azure barrier of light around him tremored, and a ball of black light flew in; it was none other than his second Nascent Soul.

Han Li placed the lid onto the jade box containing the fruit core before tossing toward the second Nascent Soul without even uttering a single word.

The second Nascent Soul waved a little hand through the air to catch the box in an extremely rehearsed manner, then disappeared into the light barrier behind it again.

Having done all that, Han Li heaved a sigh of relief before slowly closing his eyes.

What he had to do next was to work on the new sword art he obtained to see if this Spring Dawn Sword Formation truly was as lethal as the sword art proclaimed it to be. After that, he'd be able to decide whether to give up on his Aureate Sword Formation and refine his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords again.

The Spring Dawn Sword Formation just so happened to be something that could be used by late-Deity Transformation cultivators, and it was indeed far more complex and profound than the Aureate Sword Formation.

Time passed by slowly, and three months later, Han Li opened his eyes to awaken from his meditative state.

However, there was a peculiar look in his eyes and a hesitant expression on his face.

"So that's what Spring Dawn means. I was wondering why such a strange name had been given to it; turns out it's a sword formation that primarily draws on the power of an illusionary technique. That's quite surprising. In that case, won't the effectiveness of this formation depend on the power of the enemy's spiritual sense and whether the cultivation arts they're using are potent against illusionary techniques? How am I supposed to make that judgment call?" Han Li's brows furrowed with indecision.

He pondered this issue for a long while, weighing up the benefits and the drawbacks, before finally making a decision.

Back when Qing Yuanzi created this Spring Dawn Sword Formation, he would've had to give up on the Aureate Sword Formation as well, so it had to have some properties that placed it well above the Aureate Sword Formation.

At present, the Aureate Sword Formation definitely had no issues against cultivators of the same cultivation base, but it was quite difficult for it to do much against Body Integration Stage beings.

Most importantly, the Azure Coil Sword Formation after the Spring Dawn Sword Formation could also only be set up using the refined flying swords.

As such, Han Li finally decided to give up on the Aureate Sword Formation in the end.

As for refining a brand new set of flying swords, that was something that Han Li didn't even consider.

After all, with things like flying swords, it wasn't a case of the more the better. He only needed enough to set up his sword formations, and too many flying swords would make it too difficult to nurture all of them at once.

Han Li didn't want to ruin his bonded treasure due to his greed.





Chapter 1527: Planting Swords


Having made his decision, Han Li naturally no longer hesitated. He flipped a palm over, and the jade slip that the elderly man had given him appeared in his hand.

On this occasion, he was going to study the refinement method for the flying swords before he worked on the sword art.

He had already briefly read through the refinement method last time, but this was an important matter, so Han Li naturally had to read it again in detail.

A short while later, Han Li withdrew his spiritual sense from the jade slip and narrowed his eyes slightly in contemplation.

According to the jade slip, if he wanted to rid his flying swords of impurities, there were three methods he could employ.

The simplest of those methods required no extra materials; he simply had to use his Nascent Soul flames to slowly refine all of the non-wood-attribute materials in the flying swords.

That was the simplest method and also one that incurred the least amount of risk.

However, all of the materials in his flying swords had already fused as one, and it would take an extremely long time to refine them in such a way. In fact, even three or four centuries may not be enough. During this process, he'd have to constantly be using his Nascent Soul flames, so he'd be significantly hampering his own cultivation.

As such, Han Li decided against this method almost immediately.

The second method was to use a cultivation art known as the Nineflame Metal Melting Art. If he could collect several types of special fire-attribute pills, then go into seclusion for around 70 to 80 years, he'd be able to use this cultivation art along with the power within those pills to forcibly rid the Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords of their impurities.

However, this was an extremely risky method, and it would also harm some of the wood-attribute materials in the flying swords. Furthermore, the fire-attribute pills required were quite rare and not that easy to collect.

At the time, the elderly man was preparing to use this method to refine Han Li's flying swords for him in exchange for Golden Lightning Bamboo, but Han Li had not been a fan of this essentially self-mutilating method.

As such, there was only one final method left, and it was also seemingly the most implausible and time-consuming one.

The elderly man had enclosed a message stating that this method was only something that he theorized would work, but had never actually tried it himself. However, if one were to follow the instructions closely, they should have a good chance of success. Furthermore, if success were to be achieved, the rewards reaped would also be quite staggering.

This method involved a process that was known as "planting swords".

The process consisted of finding some spirit seedlings, then planting them in a place with abundant spiritual Qi. After that, the flying swords had to be sealed within these seedlings, and as the seedlings grew, all of the materials in the sword would gradually be converted into wood-attribute materials due to the wood-attribute spiritual Qi of the spirit trees themselves. As such, there'd be no need to rid the flying swords of anything.

Once the spirit trees reached full maturity, the flying swords would've been nurtured by wood-attribute spiritual Qi for a long time. As a result, not only would this process not harm the swords, it would make them pure to an incredible degree.

Even though that wouldn't significantly enhance the power of the swords, it would make it a lot easier for Han Li to attain oneness with his swords.

Of course, the elderly man didn't employ such a brilliant method due to a fatal flaw; it simply took too long!

It would take a far longer time than the previous two methods to achieve this method as spirit trees had to grow bit by bit. Even the most ordinary of spirit trees required at least 1,000 years of nurturing care to reach full maturity.

During this time, not only could these flying swords not be used at all, it also had to be ensured that none of the spirit trees died. Otherwise, all of the prior efforts would go to waste. Even if one were to replant the flying sword into another spirit tree, the damage would already be irreversible.

As for how long was required for this process, there were no specific guidelines. However, one thing was for certain; the longer a sword was planted and the more precious the spirit tree was, the greater the degree of purity of the flying sword following the procedure.