Chapter 389

Chapter 389: Rare Treasures from the Celestial Palace

“Dong…” The Primitive Shell Symbol emitted a bell-like sound.

The River God of Li River nearly vanished, but with the guidance of the Soul-Calming Incense, he was swiftly transformed into a monk, undergoing a series of divine changes, donning a robe to become the host.

Li Hui was astonished, “The divine path is truly mysterious! Ancient tales suggest a deep connection to the Buddhist sect. I didn’t expect that by putting down the butcher’s knife, one can achieve enlightenment and become a host.”

“Ha ha!” Guang Jin laughed, “Becoming a host is good; there are more and more law protectors and monk souls. Someone needs to manage them, which will strengthen the power of the Primitive Shell Symbol.”

“Divine talisman! What a pity it can only enhance once. Does this mean we need to guide three divine beings to fully transform it into a proper divine talisman?” Li Hui shook his head. “The Primitive Shell Symbol is different from other talismans; such a comparison isn’t fitting.”

“Continue gathering the tribulation soil and merging it with the small heavenly cave…”

In the blink of an eye, after seven or eight busy hours, the small heavenly cave appeared even more desolate. The various types of tribulation soil had revealed a bare surface, even the spiritual soil had been completely scavenged, and they had discovered a small section of the Miao Jade veins without hesitation.

Now things got intense. Li Hui unleashed the Treasure Cabinet Array, allowing purple Crystal Shields to swirl around him, extracting the fragmented space from the small heavenly cave.

The consumption was unprecedented, pouring in countless Miao Jade.

The Treasure Cabinet space shrank from two zhang to one zhang, then expanded from one zhang to a hundred zhang, repeatedly shrinking and growing, using up most of what he had earned over the past six months, before finally stabilizing.

Li Hui worked on the wounds throughout the small heavenly cave, using the Mysterious Pearl to rapidly expand the spirit herb garden.

Yao’er reported, “Seven hundred acres, eight hundred acres, nine hundred acres… Ah! We’ve reached one thousand acres. From eight hundred acres onwards, the excess land can only be planted with spiritual rice.”

“That’s alright; planting spiritual rice is good too.” Li Hui continued to expand the space of the Mysterious Pearl until he reached two thousand acres, and then he felt satisfied enough to stop.

Yao’er was amazed, “Truly the Little Thousand Worlds! Even in its ruined state, the foundation here still yields a lot. What a pity the Mysterious Pearl has reached its expansion limit; without specific opportunities, we need to cultivate Miao Jade for a thousand years to have a hope of expanding it again. Or we could find a way to grow the Celestial Tree to three hundred zhang tall, which should support the Mysterious Pearl’s heavenly cave, making it even better than the Little Thousand.”

“Growing the Celestial Tree through tribulation?” Li Hui pondered seriously, thinking, “If I utilize the ninety-nine types of tribulation soil well and back it with many top-grade treasures, there might be a way to outsmart others. However, growing the Celestial Tree will consume massive amounts of spiritual energy; the area around the Li River is quite barren, making it hard to gather enough Miao Jade.”

“By the way, the River God of Li River.” Li Hui instructed Guang Jin to ask about the River God’s assets and pressed on, searching again. Bai Ze wouldn’t be mistaken; there must be a treasure here of great importance to him.

With the tribulation soil gone, the essence became clearer, no longer mixed like before.

After carefully searching several times, he finally found a clue.

“Ha ha, here it is! Hiding in the massive pit blasted out by the Buddha Treasures.” Li Hui quickly took action, seeing a small bottle covered in purple gold patterns slightly shake and try to escape by the skin of its teeth.

“A bottle? The silver snake bracelet didn’t react, so it must not be a treasure.”

“Then what is it? A demon? Guang Jin didn’t sense any demonic energy. Could it be a spirit like the Cold Armor Emperor? That seems unlikely; the essence is entirely different.”

Bai Ze had locked onto the bottle; regardless of how fast it was, it was useless at this moment. Li Hui hurriedly drew a binding talisman, a grounding talisman, and a sealing talisman.

Any talismans related to binding and sealing were drawn by him.

After preparing, Li Hui began to “capture” the bottle. His fingers moved swiftly, and the talismans flew, creating quite a mess, but after great effort, he finally succeeded.

Well! I never knew capturing a three-foot-tall bottle could be so exhausting.

He had caught it, but the bottle looked exceedingly ordinary. Placed in a peasant’s house, with a few chicken feathers and an umbrella, it would soon be forgotten, and if it weren’t for the delicate purple gold patterns on it, it would be the most ordinary thing imaginable.

“How strange.” Li Hui tapped the bottle, surprised, “It’s porcelain, with an ordinary material, but how could it fly away?”

The bottle was feigning being dead; no matter how much he tapped, flicked, or hit it, it showed no response. Its lack of intelligence was frustrating; it was already showing abnormalities. Acting like an ordinary bottle was pointless.

Li Hui activated the Heavenly and Earthly Arrays to see if he could extract something from the bottle, but unexpectedly, the bottle trembled slightly, and pure profound qi entered his meridians. After just one cycle, his cultivation quietly began to break through.

“What’s going on? Profound qi? Where did it come from?”

The profound qi of course came from within the bottle, but after looking again, the bottle was empty, with no place to store anything.

“Too strange! This bottle isn’t a treasure, it’s so ordinary, yet how can it generate profound qi? And it is a hundred times more refined than the profound qi I’ve painstakingly cultivated.” Li Hui recalled the texts; no book had mentioned such a treasure, including those with heavenly cave attributes, which were nothing like this.

Bai Ze stared intensely at the bottle and suddenly spoke: “Yuan Chen Heavenly Mansion!”

“Yuan Chen Heavenly Mansion?”

Bai Ze, as Li Hui’s spiritual sense, possessed the ability to understand ancient and modern characters. He quickly grasped that the purple gold pattern near the bottom of the bottle contained writing; though he had never seen it before, it couldn’t escape Bai Ze’s recognition.

“Is it a certain cave? Could there be many such bottles, like those porcelain bottles from official kilns marked for people to use? What kind of place deserves to be called a heavenly mansion?” Li Hui was filled with questions and decided to sit down to absorb the profound qi. After just a moment, he felt his body shake.

Before reaching the peak of profound qi, he had to overcome nine levels. Even with his efforts over the past six months, he had never managed to step onto the first level.

It was just that little bit that kept him from progressing to mid-Condense Essence. Unexpectedly, encountering this odd bottle allowed him to break through the barrier and step into the first level of enlightenment.

“Boom, boom, boom…” His acupoints vibrated, and Li Hui couldn’t believe it; his cultivation surged wildly, only a few cycles of profound qi equaled years of hard work, easily allowing him to step up to the second and third levels.

Half an hour later, he had already climbed to the fourth level!

“Unbelievable! With the level of refinement of the profound qi from this bottle, reaching the fifth level within a hundred days is no problem.” Li Hui was hugely interested in the Yuan Chen Heavenly Mansion. He had seen many treasures and didn’t care much, but such a unique item that could rapidly enhance cultivation was hard not to covet!

“In this world, there is a category of treasures that come from heavenly mansions, which would greatly aid me. As long as there’s one, there must be a second. Yes, I must travel across the Great Xia in search of rare treasures from the heavenly mansions.”

At this moment, Guang Jin brought good news: “The River God of Li River carries his assets with him. Miao Jade isn’t remarkable and there aren’t many ritual artifacts, but he has a fondness for collecting Three Yang Opening Tai Stones, having gathered tens of thousands from the riverbed over the years.”

“Oh? Such good fortune?” Li Hui exclaimed with joy. “No wonder he wasn’t swallowed by the extinguishing Buddhist light, and at a critical moment, the Divine Proof didn’t abandon him. It turns out he carried a large amount of Three Yang Opening Tai Stones to ensure his fate. This stone can enhance luck; the path for the Celestial Tree to face tribulation has hope!”