Almost like a flash of divine inspiration, a bright light flashed through Han Li’s heart.
He charged like lightning to his bag and reached it in several large strides. He grabbed the leather bag and quickly pulled it open. From it, he took out his good luck charm.
As he grasped the good luck charm in his palm, he felt cold and quiet enter his mind. Han Li’s turbulent energies at once calmed down and any pain he had felt disappeared without a single trace. As though nothing had happened in the first place, everything returned to normal.
At that moment, Han Li no longer paid any attention to the changes in his body and was utterly absorbed by the good luck charm, stroking it gently. He brought it up to his face and held it right over his eyes. He used his other hand to softly caress it and intently stared at it.
After a while, Han Li sighed and his gaze shifted away.
What Han Li didn’t know was that the life-threatening crisis he had just experienced was not Fire Deviation, but rather the “Heart Invading Devil”. In reality, a primordial spirit had just barely managed to possess Han Li, only to be thwarted by some external force. Had he failed to reach the good luck charm in time, his mind would have been torn away into a fantasy land and his body would act wildly without his control until he died. However, he would not realize this until after he set onto the true path of cultivation.
Han Li cautiously moved his limbs, and was satisfied that everything was fine. However, he realized something amazing! His power had gone up and not by a small amount. Although he still didn’t break through from the third layer to the fourth layer of the chant, he reached the peak of the third layer, on the verge of advancement.
Han Li was very surprised, and on his face was a brilliant smile, but he then hastily curbed his excitement within the depths of his heart. He was afraid that he was still unstable, that he might go through Fire Deviation again. In such a case, he could not say for sure that he would survive this time. So he grabbed the leather bag and put the good luck charm back inside its proper place.
“Ah!” Han Li had just remembered the existence of the bag’s contents, for, over the years, they faded from his mind. He realized that he still had that mysterious bottle.
After all these years, he finally remembered its existence. Seeing it again roused his curiosity once more.
Han Li was vastly different compared to four years ago. His knowledge was now much greater and extensive, for he had spent years in Doctor Mo’s library reading various books and collecting information, not to mention that practicing that obscure chant had significantly sharpened his mind. Though it took him a long time before to recognize that the bottle was special, he could now tell just at a glance that it was certainly an unusual item. He was confident that he would be able to unearth the bottle’s secrets this time.
If it turned out that it was a priceless treasure this whole time, Han Li keeping it neglected and forgotten in a bag this whole time would have been like a world without justice. It would have been such a shame that he had wasted its potential.
But what a pity! Even after carefully, closely examining it over and over again, even with his improved knowledge, he couldn’t discover anything new.
Impatiently, he opened the bottle and peered inside. Just like before, the verdant green liquid was still at the bottom of the bottle, no different from four years ago.
Han Li very clearly understood that the bottle’s secret would have to exist in the liquid. Most likely, this drop of liquid had some sort of special effect. In order to determine what exactly it would do, Han Li made the decision to ruthlessly experiment on small animals.
However, it was night and the outside was very dark. Apparently, it had already passed from the late afternoon to around midnight. It would be an ordeal to go hunt down animals now. Han Li was exhausted and even if he managed to find animals in darkness, he wouldn’t even be able to clearly observe the change in the experiments. Without light, any effort would be in vain!
After pondering his various options, Han Li decided to lie down and get a good rest. He would wait until tomorrow to regain his energy and then conduct his experiments while full of energy. Maybe then he would meet with a pleasant surprise. He went to bed with such expectations.
Early morning, Han Li got up and washed his face. Afterwards, he went to the kitchen outside of the valley and ate a simple breakfast. When he was still here, Doctor Mo would order workers from the kitchen to come to the Valley of the God’s Hand and bring food for him. Han Li, too, benefited from this and thus he did not leave the valley to get food. The cook himself would bring food not only to Doctor Mo, but to Han Li as well. But now Doctor Mo was not at the Seven Mysteries Sect, so naturally the kitchen workers stopped personally delivering food to Han Li. This made Han Li feel that the kitchen steward was a bit too snobbish.
After eating breakfast, Han Li didn’t immediately leave the kitchen. He went to go find the kitchen steward and purchased two healthy gray hares to bring back to the Valley of the God’s Hand.
Coming back to the valley, Han Li leashed the rabbits and put them down in a small medicine fields. They were left exposed to the scorching sunlight.
The rabbits quickly became tired and thirsty. He took a small porcelain bowl and carefully poured the green liquid into it, diluted with some ordinary water.
This small pea sized green liquid easily dissolved into the water and made all of the water in the bowl dark green. The greenish jade color sent chills through one’s heart just by looking at it.
Han Li set down the bowl with the diluted liquid for the thirsty rabbits to drink.
The rabbits came up to him and crowded around the bowl, drinking large mouthfuls of water. Han Li didn’t want them to consume too much of the liquid at once, so when the bowl was about halfway empty, he took it away.
Afterwards, he set the bowl to one side and observed the rabbits closely for any interesting reactions.
After the time it takes to burn an incense stick, the rabbits became very active and jumped around. Their behavior became more and more violent. When he grabbed hold of one of them, he noticed that, under each rabbit’s fur, were growing lumps the size of a hen’s egg. Not only did they grow larger, but more were appearing, until there were enough to cover the rabbit’s entire body. Afterwards, these swellings on the rabbit became so monstrous that, even looking at a single part of its body would make one want to lock up such a grotesque creature. Its head especially began to look more and more terrifying.
The rabbits only maintained this fleshy state for a short time, then they started to slowly swell like a balloon. It looked like they were being constantly inflated with some sort of gas, making them grow bigger and bigger, until at last they looked like two watermelons.
Seeing the rabbits’ bodies grow into such a strange sight and hearing their painful wails, Han Li was shocked.
The rabbits had undergone an immediate and unexpected change right before his eyes. He had expected that this liquid would be some kind of immortal’s elixir that would vastly improve his power. He absolutely didn’t expect this, and seeing the scene before him made his scalp grow numb. What was happening to the rabbits was unimaginably terrible.