Chapter 122: Trial
Over a month passed by in the blink of an eye.
On this day, Han Li was seated in his secret chamber in a completely still manner with his legs crossed and his eyes closed.
All of a sudden, his eyelids fluttered slightly, and he opened his eyes before rising to his feet. In the next instant, he appeared in the air above the courtyard that he was staying in, having already put on his azure cow mask.
After a brief hesitation, he flew through the air in a certain direction as a streak of azure light.
Close to half a day later, a streak of azure light shot forth through the air above a nameless island countless kilometers away from Dark Veil Island. The streak of azure light circled around in the air a few times upon reaching the island, then faded to reveal Han Li in his cow mask, hovering in the air beside a small hill.
As soon as he appeared above the island, a burst of spatial ripples that were visible to the naked eye emerged not far away, and a gray figure stepped out of thin air.
The figure was wearing a red mask, and their entire body was enveloped in a layer of gray light that concealed their aura. Even though they were standing right in front of Han Li, they somehow felt extremely distant in Han Li's eyes, and he couldn't get a clear look at them no matter how hard he tried.
Han Li's pupils contracted slightly upon seeing this.
In the instant that the masked figure had appeared, Han Li had been struck by the feeling that they were most likely even more powerful than Wyrm 3.
The gray figure sized up Han Li for a moment, then declared, "Wyrm 15, Wyrm 3 has recommended that we consider elevating you to an azure member of the guild. Your past contributions are nowhere near enough for you to be considered for a promotion, but seeing as Wyrm 15 was willing to use his one-time recommendation on you, there's nothing for me to say. However, you must complete a trial mission in order to secure the promotion."
Their voice was rather indistinct, and it was impossible to discern their gender and age range.
"I understand," Han Li replied with a nod.
"This is the list of the missions for you to select from," the gray figure said as he flipped a hand over to summon a crimson badge.
With a tap of his finger, the strange patterns on the badge lit up, and countless tiny runes emerged before intertwining with one another to form a crimson screen of light that was several dozen feet in size.
Lines of small text appeared on the light screen, describing the available missions for Han Li to choose from.
Han Li didn't waste any time with words as he immediately directed his gaze to the light screen and began to carefully read through its contents.
The missions were extremely diverse, involving tasks like overseeing a dangerous area for 10,000 years, slaying a powerful being that was ruling over a certain extremely distant region, and gathering various types of rare treasures.
The one thing that all of these missions had in common was that they all appeared to be very difficult, with many of them no less difficult than killing the lord of Red Moon Island.
Han Li's mind was racing as he read through these missions.
Given his current powers, there were some missions that were possible for him to complete, but all of those missions were going to take a very long time, and time was the one thing that he had the shortest supply of.
He didn't even want to wait for 10 years or 100 years, let alone thousands or tens of thousands of years.
The True Immortal Realm that he was situated in was rife with peril, and there were clearly some powers that he was unaware of trying to hunt him down. Otherwise, he wouldn't have lost 300 years' worth of memories and ended up in the Spirit Domain Realm.
He continued to inspect the list of missions while these thoughts were running through his mind, and all of a sudden, his gaze settled on a particular mission.
"Revive the seed of an unknown spirit medicine within 100 years."
Han Li's eyes immediately lit up at the sight of this mission.
He didn't know what spirit medicine this seed belonged to, but given that he possessed the Heaven Controlling Vial, this was surely not going to be a difficult mission for him to complete.
With that in mind, he pointed at the mission on the light screen, making sure to remain composed as he asked, "Would you be able to elaborate on the mission concerning the revival of the spirit medicine seed?"
The light glowing from the gray figure's body flashed slightly, and they seemed to have been rather taken by this request. "Oh? Are you interested in that mission?"
Han Li faltered slightly upon hearing this, then asked, "Is there a problem with this mission?"
"No, that's not it. This mission was released by an elder of our guild. He came across this spirit medicine seed by chance, but he hasn't been able to identify what spirit medicine it belongs to. On top of that, the seed is completely devoid of vitality. By his estimation, it would have to require wood-attribute power of laws of a certain level to have a chance at reviving the seed," the gray figure explained.
"I'll take this mission," Han Li replied with a nod.
The gray figure took a glance at Han Li, and they didn't ask any questions. Instead, they simply stowed the crimson badge away, then produced what appeared to be a white array plate before handing it to Han Li as they said, "This is an object transference plate, and someone will send the seed to you through this plate in a few days. If you can revive the seed, then send it back using this plate, and you'll have completed your trial mission."
Han Li accepted the plate from the gray figure, and a hint of intrigue flashed through his eyes. He had never seen anything of this nature outside of the Immortal Realm.
After Han Li selected his mission, the gray figure didn't stay any longer, raising their arm to release a burst of gray light, which flew forward before circling around in the air.
A spatial rift then opened up before transforming into a murky gray spatial passageway, the edges of which were giving off a faint glow.
The gray figure stepped into the spatial passageway without sparing another glance at Han Li, instantly vanishing into thin air, and the spatial passageway also closed in a flash behind him right after he stepped through it.
Han Li's eyes narrowed slightly upon seeing this, and he was quite stunned by what he had seen.
Within the gray light was an ordinary-looking talisman with some profound golden patterns on its surface.
It was able to break through space with ease, and Han Li could sense a type of special law fluctuations emanating from it, so it clearly was no ordinary object, yet the gray figure seemed to have only been using it as a transportation device, and that certainly appeared rather excessive.
Han Li shook his head to rid himself of that train of thought, then flew away into the distance as a streak of light.
That night.
Luo Feng hurriedly arrived in the courtyard that Han Li was staying in with an urgent expression, and as soon as he arrived, he immediately cupped his fist in a respectful salute as he declared, "Luo Feng pays his respects to Senior Liu."
"Go and find me some high-grade spirit soils fit for growing spirit plants. There's no need to bring me too much of each type, but try and gather as many types as possible," Han Li instructed.
Luo Feng faltered slightly upon hearing this, then immediately accepted the order without asking any questions.
......
Three days later.
Han Li was seated with his legs crossed in his secret chamber, and there was a white array plate hovering in front of him. The array plate was revolving on the spot while emitting a faint buzzing sound.
Moments later, a vast expanse of dazzling white light erupted out of the array plate, followed by a flurry of countless silver runes, which revolved around the array plate for a while before surging to the center of the plate to form a ball of white light.
The ball of white light swelled, then shrank, before scattering to reveal a palm-sized azure jade box hovering in the air above the array plate.
Han Li beckoned to the azure jade box, drawing it into his grasp, and after conducting a brief inspection to ensure that nothing was amiss, he removed the lid of the box.
Inside the box was a thumb-sized brownish-yellow seed that was dry and withered, resembling an unremarkable walnut.
Han Li carefully picked up the seed between two of his fingers, then held it in front of his eyes for a meticulous inspection.
After a long while, he shook his head as he concluded that the seed was indeed completely devoid of vitality, just as the gray figure had said.
Furthermore, he couldn't see anything special about the seed, so he didn't know why a seemingly high-ranking elder of the Transient Guild would go to such great lengths to have it revived.
After a moment of contemplation, he summoned his jade badge to open up the entrance to the secret area, then made his way inside before arriving on a plot of empty land behind the wooden hut. Once there, he flipped a hand over to produce a jade basin, which he set down onto the ground, and the basin was filled with some soil of different colors that were giving off strong spiritual power fluctuations.
This was a type of five-colored soil that he had mixed together on his own from the spirit soils that Luo Feng had gathered for him.
He wouldn't dare to proclaim that this composite soil would be capable of nurturing all spirit plants, but the majority of spirit plants would be able to live and grow in this five-colored soil
Han Li buried the seed in the spirit soil, then pulled out his Heaven Controlling Vial.
It had been quite some time since he last used the vial, and a drop of green liquid had already appeared inside it.
He carefully dripped the drop of green liquid into the spirit soil, and the liquid quickly seeped in.
After that, he crossed his legs and sat onto the ground, closing his eyes as he released his spiritual sense to delve into the seed within the spirit soil.
Time slowly passed by, and close to half a day later, his eyes abruptly sprang open as an elated look appeared on his face.
As expected, a hint of vitality arose within the brownish-yellow seed around four to six hours after the green liquid seeped into the soil, and that hint of vitality was growing stronger at an extremely slow rate.
After making this observation, Han Li left the secret area and returned to his courtyard, setting up layers upon layers of restrictions before pulling out the small vial and placing it onto the ground.
It was already late at night, and the stars in the night sky were glowing brightly.
Countless rays of starlight instantly converged to fuse into the vial...
Time flew by in a flash, and in the blink of an eye, an entire month had passed by. At this point, another drop of green liquid had arisen inside the small vial, and Han Li immediately poured it onto the seed.
This time, hints of faint green coloration began to appear on the surface of the brownish-yellow seed...
Five months later, with the application of the sixth drop of green liquid, the vitality within the seed had recovered to close to 20%, and its originally dull and lifeless surface had also taken on a grayish-green color.
Another three months passed by in this fashion, and as Han Li applied one more drop of green liquid to the seed, a tiny little opening appeared on the surface of the seed amid a faint crack, and a tender seedling that was around an inch in length emerged.
Several white roots that resembled strands of silk also emerged from the underside of the seed, plunging themselves into the five-colored spirit soil.
Han Li was observing the green seedling before him with an intrigued expression.
He still didn't know what type of seed this was, but given its current state, it was definitely going to be an extremely remarkable spirit plant once it grew to full maturity.
The seed had originally been completely devoid of life, so the most difficult part was instilling it with a hint of vitality and preserving that newfound vitality. At this point, close to a quarter of the seed's vitality had already been restored, and it was gradually reaching a stable condition.
At this point, it had already been revived, and all that had to be done from here was to transfer the seed to some spirit soil, then slowly nurture it with a suitable wood-attribute spirit liquid, and it would only be a matter of time before it made a full recovery.
Of course, without the green liquid, this process could easily take tens of thousands of years, but that was not something for Han Li to worry about. In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, he had no intention of completely restoring the seed's vitality.
With that in mind, he returned to the secret chamber in the courtyard, and after putting on his cow mask, he flipped a hand over to produce that white array plate.
He placed the seedling and the jade basin onto the array plate, then waved a hand to activate the restriction enclosed within the plate.
A burst of white light arose from the array plate to envelop the jade basin, and in the next instant, the jade basin vanished into thin air.