A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality: Immortal Realm
Chapter 987: Rapid Progress

A contemplative look appeared in Han Li's eyes as he examined the four statues.

The one on the very left was one that he had obtained from Green Goat City, and he had already fully mastered the three levels of the Heavenly Baleful Purgatory Arts enclosed within it during his time in the Weeping Blood Array.

The second and third statues had both been in E Kuai's possession, while the final statue was the one that he had pulled out of the Flower Branch domain.

According to E Kuai, there were four of these statues, so he had completed the set.

A hint of concern appeared in Han Li's eyes at the thought of the Flower Branch domain.

At the time, he was on the verge of running out of the immortal spiritual power imparted upon him by Daoist Xie, so he was only able to pull out this statue and some recovery pills, and he wasn't even able to go into the domain.

Weeping Soul was still lying unconscious on the second floor of the bamboo pavilion, and Han Li had no idea if her condition had worsened at all.

However, there was simply nothing that he could do at the moment.

In the wake of Shi Pokong's betrayal, his ticket back to the Devil Realm had been proven to be counterfeit, so the only way for him to return to the Scalptia Spatial Domain now was to wait for Daoist Xie to make a full recovery.

Furthermore, now that Shi Zhanfeng was dead, there was naturally no way for him to fulfill his promise of getting the grand priest to treat Weeping Soul's condition.

On top of that, the battle for the throne in the Devil Realm was only going to become more and more intense, and Han Li didn't want to deepen his involvement in this matter.

After taking a moment to collect his thoughts, Han Li picked up the second statue, then took a deep breath, following which a burst of translucent light shot out of his glabella and into the statue.

Immediately thereafter, the statue began to cycle through a series of strange poses, and with each pose that it adopted, a passage of profound text would appear on its back, laying out the next three levels of the Heavenly Baleful Purgatory Arts.

Han Li stared intently at the statue and began to imitate its movements.

......

On a continent that was countless kilometers away, a seductive woman was seated on a white jade chair in a majestic palace at the center of a massive city, listening to a report being delivered by a handsome young man.

The woman was none other than Sha Xin, while the report was being delivered by Zhuo Fa.

"We've established firm control over Profound City. There's been some minor resistance from the four subsidiary cities, but they've all been quelled. Also, Gu Qianxun has made some significant contributions during this process," Zhuo Fa reported in a respectful manner.

"I heard that the elders and subordinates that formerly served under Qin Yuan of Profound End City all surrendered and pledged their subordination to our Puppet City, but they were still all killed nonetheless. Why is that?" Sha Xin asked.

"Gu Qianxun was responsible for that, but she was acting under Mistress Liu Hua's instructions. He told me that he would explain the matter to you in person," Zhuo Fa replied after a brief hesitation.

"They must've just been settling some personal vendettas. Let them do as they please," Sha Xin said in an indifferent manner.

"In Gu Qianxun's defense, she did make a clear effort to keep the damage to a minimum. All of the battles were held in the arena in Profound End City, and there were a total of eighty-one battles spanning over a period of seven days and seven night before all of Qin Yuan's former subordinates were killed. As a result, there were no innocent civilian casualties or any collateral damage," Zhuo Fa said in a careful manner.

"It sounds like she was quite measured in her approach. Her actions are hardly of consequence. Have new city lords been instated yet?" Sha Xin asked.

"Mistress Liu Hua is currently serving as the temporary city lord of Profound City, and Zhu Ziyuan and Zhu Ziqing have pledged their subordination to him as well, so that was actually the smoothest transition. As for the other cities, city lords have also been assigned, but a lot of people have died in the process," Zhuo Fa reported.

"Profound City is no smaller a city than our Puppet City, so make sure to keep it under thorough supervision at all times," Sha Xin instructed.

"Yes, City Lord Sha," Zhuo Fa replied.

"How many of the ruins that I instructed you to excavate have you found?" Sha Xin asked.

"At this point, we've only found twenty-one, and we're still searching for the remaining eighty-seven," Zhuo Fa replied.

"These ruins are spread out over the entire Scalptia Spatial Domain, and some of them in very perilous and completely uninhabited places, so you've already made some good progress replaceing twenty-one of them in such a short time. Just make sure you replace all of them within the next one thousand years," Sha Xin said.

Zhuo Fa gave an affirmative response.

"This is a vital matter for Master's resumption of control over the Scalptia Spatial Domain, so it must be treated with the utmost care and diligence," Sha Xin said in a serious manner, then waved a hand to dismissive Zhuo Fa, who extended a respectful bow before promptly departing.

......

Inside an underground secret chamber in a large manor in the western region of Puppet City, Shi Chuankong was submerged within an octagonal pool of blood with his body bound by eight translucent, crimson chains, each of which was attached to one of the eight crimson stone pillars around the pool.

The chains were clanging incessantly, and the eight crimson stone pillars were also trembling violently as the entire pool of blood churned and bubbled while giving off bursts of scorching heat.

However, Shi Chuankong's body remained completely still, as if he were completely unaffected, and only his tightly furrowed brows and the audible grinding of his teeth betrayed the fact that he was in excruciating pain.

However, he had willingly put himself in this position. In fact, he had to make a deal with Sha Xin for this privilege.

Right at this moment, a speck of light appeared on his chest as a profound acupoint was abruptly opened.

......

Over eight hundred years passed by in the blink of an eye.

The star array in the crystal palace beneath the lake of blood was still operating, while bursts of rumbling were ringing out incessantly within one of the side palaces.

Inside the side palace was a strange-looking humanoid creature with golden fur all over its body, a pair of lightning wings on its back, and pieces of azure turtle shell all over its arms.

The humanoid creature was currently pounding the walls of the side palace with all its might, but thankfully, the tremendous starpower released by the runes on the walls ensured that the building wasn't completely razed to the ground.

The monstrous creature pounded the walls for a full six hours before its strength finally began to wane.

As its movements slowed down, the silver wings on its back faded away, quickly followed by the chunks of turtle shell on its arms, then the golden fur all over its skin.

After all of these features faded away, the humanoid figure was revealed to be none other than Han Li.

His eyes were sunken deep into his face, and he looked completely emaciated. He was having to support himself with his palms against the ground, and he was panting heavily while sweating profusely, but his sweat was being evaporated into steam as soon as it oozed out of his pores, making it appear as if his entire body were enshrouded in a cloud of mist.

Some time later, he slumped down against the wall, and the rampant true spirit bloodlines in his body finally settled down again.

Ultimately, true spirit bloodlines were still different from starpower, and the Origin Star Blood Refinement Technique alone was struggling more and more to quell the unrest in his true spirit bloodlines.

At this rate, this will only have to happen a few more times, and all of my blood essence is going to be incinerated into nothingness...

Han Li heaved a faint sigh at this sobering thought.

He had already read through all of the scriptures in the other side palace no fewer than ten times, and none of the scriptures related to bodily refinement had presented any solutions. Surprisingly enough, he was able to replace a potential solution in a scripture related to puppetry, but it was one that he was very reluctant to pursue.

The method involved refining a powerful puppet and transferring one's true spirit bloodlines into it, then drawing in someone else's blood into one's own body in order to ensure survival.

However, if he were to do this, then his powers would be significantly diminished, and the resulting puppet would temporarily possess extremely formidable combat prowess, but once it used up all of the blood essence in its body, then it would be reduced to a useless piece of trash.

Even though Han Li was very resistant to the idea, he knew that he would have to resort to it for his own survival if no better solution was found.

During this time, Daoist Xie had awakened several times, and Han Li had taken advantage of those opportunities to open the Flower Branch domain to check on Weeping Soul.

All of the Purple Sun Warm Jade had already been used up, but for some reason, her condition hadn't continued to worsen. Hence, Han Li temporarily sealed Weeping Soul away using a puppetry secret technique taught him by Daoist Xie so that he could address her condition another time.

On top of that, Han Li also asked Daoist Xie if the latter had any solutions pertaining to his problem of true spirit bloodline backlash.

After all, Daoist Xie was the one who had instructed him to cultivate the Heavenly Baleful Purgatory Arts to begin with, and this backlash had only begun to arise after he used the advanced refinement method enclosed in the cultivation art to refine his own true spirit bloodlines.

Daoist Xie's explanation for this was that his true spirit bloodlines had to have been enhanced following the refinement process, thereby resulting in this backlash.

Unfortunately, he wasn't able to provide any solutions, and he told Han Li that he would address the matter once he came out of seclusion.

Hence, Han Li had no choice but to continue cultivating the Heavenly Baleful Purgatory Arts to enhance his own physical constitution while suppressing his true spirit bloodlines with the starpower in his own body. As long as he didn't use his Heavenly Baleful Purgatory Arts in conjunction with his true spirit bloodlines, the latter wouldn't be enhanced any further.

Hence, he became even more diligent in his cultivation of the Heavenly Baleful Purgatory Arts.

At this point, he had already mastered the first six levels of the cultivation, completing the second statue, and he had opened over nine hundred profound acupoints, making him comparable in power to E Kuai prior to his death.

The main factors that contributed to his astonishingly rapid progress in the Heavenly Baleful Purgatory Arts were the tremendous amount of bloodline power stored in the Heaven Controlling Vial, as well as the special environment in this crystal palace.