More than half a month had passed since the Tianxing Auction ended. Han Li rarely ventured out, spending his time in a quiet chamber at the Cloud-Arrival Inn studying his new acquisitions. He had placed the piece of soul-nourishing wood at the heart of a Spirit Gathering Array. Its gentle aura nourished his Divine Soul, leaving his mind exceptionally clear as he worked through cultivation methods and studied formations. He had carefully stored the three Seaheart Lotus Seeds away. Rich in pure water essence, they were excellent aids for breaking through the Core Formation bottleneck, and he would not use them until the crucial moment.
He devoted more of his attention to the broken dark-red token he had acquired at the Underground Auction. Its material was neither metal nor jade, and it was extraordinarily hard. Even when he drove the Gloom Fang Dagger with the full strength of his current cultivation and struck it, he could not leave so much as a scratch. The charred patches on its surface seemed to have been scorched by flames of extreme heat. The surviving runes were exceedingly ancient, bearing some resemblance to the patterns on the Profound Yin Token, though they were far more intricate and profound. Whenever the Profound Yin Token drew near, the faint resonance within the broken token grew a little clearer. Beyond that, however, it remained like an unyielding stone, impossible to probe.
"It seems that to unravel this token's mystery, I'll either have to find its other fragments, attain a deeper mastery of formations, or discover a specific activation art." Han Li put it away rather than waste more effort. Instead, he took out the jade slip containing the Star Sea Cartographic Map and sank his spiritual sense into it.
The jade slip held a vast wealth of