Chapter 494: Celestial Ice Pearl
Han Li felt his blood run cold and his face trembled upon witnessing the ferocity of the Asura Flames.
After the grey flames incinerated the Bone Sage, they condensed into a delicate ember and flew off.
For some unknown reason, the Bone Sage’s death had caused a strange transformation in the Asura Flames. All of the grey embers simultaneously released a thread of dark green Qi along with a spark of black lightning, turning the embers blue in an instant. The embers appeared to have returned to their original form as Celestial Ice Flames.
Han Li suddenly felt his surroundings compress, as the air filled with blue glacial Qi. The glacial Qi started to cover the ground in thin layer of ice, spreading to the rest of the area within the light barrier.
Han Li turned pale from fright at the sudden onslaught of cold and wildly poured spiritual power into the White Rhino Emblem. A scorching white light was emitted that repelled the cold Qi, barring it from approaching his body.
It seemed the Celestial Ice Flame’s true capabilities were only displayed after the Bone Sage had lost control. In only a short moment, the entire surface of the stone platform had been covered in a sheet of frost. Han Li’s barrier of white light barely managed to protect him, but it ma.s.sively drained his magic power, causing him to bitterly curse.
Han Li now understood that the Bone Sage’s Celestial Ice Flames were weakened from either his shallow cultivation or a lack of time to refine them. This would explain why he had only been able to use a faction of its true power a moment ago.
Had the Bone Sage displayed this fearsome power with his Celestial Ice Flames from the start, he would’ve been able to kill Han Li several times over without having any need to refine the Asura Flames. In addition, it is likely that the true power of the Asura Flames hadn’t been displayed either. Its power had probably only reached a tenth of its potential!
As these domineering thoughts entered his mind, he had nearly deduced the entire truth of the matter. Regardless, he wasn’t about to let himself to foolishly meet his end by the masterless Celestial Ice Flames after having put so much effort into eliminating the Bone Sage.
At that moment, he grit his teeth and reached for the spirit beast pouch at his waist. He was going to release the Gold Devouring Beetle’s and see whether or not they could increase his odds of survival.
The still immature Gold Devouring Beetles were certain to be unable to resist the fearsome chill, but Han Li didn’t have many options left to keep his life.
Han Li’s palm moved and just as he was about to open the spirit beast pouch a sudden change occurred.
The floating blue embers throughout the room suddenly flickered several times before releasing a clear ringing sound. They seemed to have received some sort of command and started to shoot towards the sky, condensing into a single solid form.
A short moment later, a s.h.i.+ning blue light sphere appeared in the sky. As soon as this fist-sized blue ice pearl had appeared, the fantastical chill within the stone platform instantly disappeared as if it had never been there.
Having already opened his spirit beast pouch halfway, Han Li was dumbfounded, but he soon found himself overwhelmed with delighted surprise. Regardless of what strange transformations the Celestial Ice Flames underwent, he could now safely make his escape.
At that moment, the blue ice pearl slowly floated down from the sky and stopped in front of Han Li.
Han Li looked at the ice pearl with a strange expression. After some contemplation, he reached out his hand and shot a bolt of the remnant lightning at it. After winding around the ice pearl for a moment, the pearl had been restrained and obediently entered the lightning’s control with no further surprises.
Han Li’s expression grew solemn. He didn’t dare to be overly confident, and carefully flicked his wrist, having the golden lightning slowly draw the ice pearl towards him.
He had the pearl stop about a foot away from him, and looked at it with trepidation. With his hand firmly covered in azure light, he carefully reached out to it.
Although his hand was still covered in dense true essence, Han Li could feel a slight chill through it. It seemed that after the Celestial Ice Flames had condensed into this pearl, its glacial qi had been completely sealed.
As such, Han Li breathed a sigh of relief and dispersed the light surrounding his hand. He grabbed the pearl with three fingers and carefully examined it.
The blue pearl’s exterior was solid blue crystal while its interior consisted of raging flames.
Han Li hesitated for a moment. This Celestial Ice Pearl was a treasure that had scarcely, if ever, appeared in this world. It could be considered a treasure even more valuable than the Heavenvoid Cauldron.
Although he didn’t know how this ice-fire pearl could be refined or used, it was something that he absolutely couldn’t discard. After having witnessed the viciousness of the Azure Sun Devil Fire[1. First and only appearance in chapter 266.] and the Heavenwide Corpse Fire, Han Li found himself desiring a powerful flame of his own. And even better, the Celestial Ice Flame’s power was even greater than the previous flames he had witnessed.
With this, he would be able to fulfill his long desire of possessing some truly ferocious flames. Although attempting to use and acquire it possessed a certain degree of danger, Han Li was more than willing to brave the risk.
With that thought, Han Li shot out a spark of gold lightning and wrapped the ice pearl in successive layers of lightning. A short moment later, he held the lightning-clad pearl in his hand while sparks of lightning occasionally arced off the ball. The result set Han Li’s mind at ease.
If the ice pearl was to rupture once more, the cover of Devilbane Lightning would be able to buy him enough time to wrest control over it. After having just battled against these very flames, he was completely confident that the Divine Devilbane Lightning could restrain them if need be. There would be no fear of any sudden backlash.
However, he had now truly exhausted the reserve of Devilbane Lightning inside his body. Not even a spark remained.
However, Han Li couldn’t bring himself to care as he put the pearl inside a square jade box and properly placed it away.
At that moment, Han Li finally had the chance to take a breath and make a quick flight to the altar. He placed his over exhausted Bloodjade Spider into his spirit beast pouch. As for the refined spider corpse, it had long stopped moving.
Han Li couldn’t help but stop when he arrived at where the Bone Sage perished. With an astonished expression, he waved his hand. An item that faintly shone with white light flew into his hand from within the ashes.
It turned out to be a flawless white gem that was several inches long. After sizing it up for a moment, he recognized it to be the Bone Sage’s rib bone.
Han Li was quite amazed to find that it had been completely unharmed by the Sacred Asura Flames.
When he had first seen it inside the Bone Sage’s prison, the rib bone had contained the map of Heavenvoid Hall.
‘Could it be that the rib bone holds other items as well?’ After some further thought, Han Li placed it into his storage pouch. Now was not the time to examine his spoils as his escape and survival were the far more urgent matters at hand.
Just as Han Li flew towards the steps, he unexpectedly found a dormant emerald-green arrow on the ground.
Han Li frowned and waved his hand, sweeping the treasure into his grasp with a streak of azure light.
After a casual inspection, Han Li placed the arrow into his bag, but a strange ringing then unexpectedly sounded out from within his spirit beast pouch.
Han Li’s heart stirred, and he couldn’t help but be his surprised.
After frowning with some deliberation, he suddenly slapped his storage pouch. A streak of light circled around him before revealing itself to be the soul devouring Weeping Soul Beast.
Han Li opened his mouth and spat out the grey pearl used to control it, the Weeping Soul Pearl.
Han Li had found the circ.u.mstances from when Yuan Yao handed this beast over to him to be quite strange. As a result, he hadn’t refined the control pearl. However, it was still an easy matter to erase her lingering spiritual sense from the pearl and exert control over the Weeping Soul Beast.
As he held onto the Weeping Soul Pearl, he stared at the small emerald-green arrow and suddenly opened his mouth. An azure ball of core flame enveloped the arrow and started to slowly refine it.
At first the arrow didn’t reveal the slightest reaction as if it were truly dead.
A cold glint then flashed through Han Li’s eyes. After licking his lips, he threw the arrow into the air and gave the Weeping Soul Beast a command. The beast suddenly snorted and shot out a yellow mist, enveloping the small arrow.
The small arrow had originally stayed still, but upon seeing the yellow mist, it flashed with green light several times, enveloping itself in a streak of green radiance accompanied by a sharp whistle. The arrow then shot directly towards the stone stairs as if it were terrified by the yellow mist.