Chapter 1377: Exploring the Secret of the Silver Sand

Li Yan swiftly withdrew his Divine Sense. Upon leaving the silver “water-cloud,” his Divine Sense returned to normal in almost three breaths.

‘This is just a small pinch of ice sand, and it takes more than two breaths to fully recover. But if I were to use this silver ‘water-cloud’ to attack others, I wonder what its power would be?’

‘The key here is how to refine this silver sand. Otherwise, it’s all just wishful thinking.’

For a moment, Li Yan thought of the scene where he used the Li Fire Profound Yellow Fan to shoot flames from the Blood River to injure his enemies, and a trace of anticipation appeared in his heart.

Next, Li Yan focused his Divine Sense on the silver sand itself. He gently raised his hand, and a tiny grain of silver sand flew towards his finger, landing on his index finger.

A black light flashed on Li Yan’s finger, but the grain of silver sand remained unchanged. This was within Li Yan’s expectations, as Donglin Tingyue had described this property before.

Afterward, Li Yan pressed his thumb against his index finger. He first tried with a little bit of force and felt that the grain of sand between his fingers was extremely hard.

The next moment, he exerted more force, directly using seventy percent of his physical strength.

The instant the powerful crushing force was generated, the cold qi from the grain of silver sand flared up, becoming violent.

But the force of Li Yan’s fingers did not stop; it continued to increase. By the time he reached ninety percent, a silver light had already appeared on his fingertips, but the grain of silver sand still had not shattered.

The cold qi it emitted did not increase further but remained at a certain level. It was just that this cold qi became even more violent.

But because it was only a single grain of sand, the violent force was pitifully weak, relatively speaking.

At this point, Li Yan immediately released the force from his hand. His face was devoid of joy or sorrow, making it impossible to tell what he was thinking.

Then, he suddenly opened his mouth and spat out a wisp of Nascent Fire, shooting it directly at the small pinch of silver sand still floating in front of him.

Li Yan didn’t bother testing it with conventional technique flames; he directly used his most powerful flame—the Nascent Fire, which could melt even ten-thousand-year-old cold iron into molten liquid.

A few breaths later, looking at the silver sand in the air, which remained unchanged, and the cold qi that had not dissipated much, a light flashed continuously in Li Yan’s eyes.

“I wonder if cultivators above the Nascent Soul Realm can calcine it. At least my Nascent Fire is incapable of refining this substance. I wonder what would happen if I used a top-grade Earth Fire, or an Exotic Fire of Heaven and Earth?”

“But top-grade Earth Fires are very difficult to find, and Exotic Fires of Heaven and Earth are even more of a luxury. These are not tests I can think of performing anytime soon.”

“Just by relying on ordinary artifact-refining flames, it’s impossible to refine silver sand of this hardness into a magical treasure. It’s truly a pity…”

Li Yan looked at the silver sand in front of him, his mind racing.

Just as Donglin Tingyue had said, if this substance couldn’t be refined, then it couldn’t be used as a high-quality artifact-refining material.

However, with the somewhat ridiculous hardness of this silver sand, he could certainly use his magical power to forcefully launch it as a hidden weapon. But in that case, the power it could unleash would be limited.

Although with Li Yan’s terrifying strength, the damage would surely be greater than that of an ordinary magical treasure, he wouldn’t be able to add any other elemental attacks to it. It would be a purely brute-force attack.

After a brief test, Li Yan’s Divine Sense moved. The small pinch of silver sand vanished into thin air, and at the same time, a fan appeared in Li Yan’s hand—it was the Li Fire Profound Yellow Fan.

Inside this magical treasure, in a corner of the Blood River, the silver sand that had just disappeared flashed and sank directly into the river.

Li Yan’s Divine Sense was firmly locked onto that spot. The moment the silver sand entered the Blood River, that small patch of the river almost instantly showed a strange reaction.

Seeing this, Li Yan was stunned. He hadn’t expected the reaction between the two to be so swift and violent.

In his previous thoughts, since even Nascent Fire couldn’t refine it, he had immediately thought of a similar scene from the past. The silver pages had also been extremely difficult to refine, and in the end, he had used the Blood River to melt them. Naturally, he could try the same method again.

Where the silver sand had been thrown, a rapidly spinning vortex instantly appeared on the river’s surface. And as this vortex spun, Li Yan’s gaze also focused.

In that vortex, a pattern of a red and white Taiji Yin-Yang fish had appeared. It was also slowly rotating within the vortex. The slow rotation of this pattern and the fast rotation of the outer vortex created a visual contrast.

After a brief moment of surprise at the appearance of the Taiji Yin-Yang fish pattern, Li Yan did not act rashly but continued to observe.

His first reaction was that the slowly rotating Taiji Yin-Yang fish pattern, though lacking an ancient and profound aura, exuded a sense of danger.

Fifty breaths passed before that sliver of Li Yan’s Divine Sense finally probed into it…

Outside, Li Yan’s expression suddenly changed. A sharp pain shot through his sea of consciousness. The sliver of Divine Sense that had entered the Taiji Yin-Yang fish had been completely shredded the moment it entered, before it could even get a clear look at what was inside.

Before Li Yan could react, the small golden Nascent Soul figure in his Dantian suddenly opened its eyes. The power of the Five Elements erupted from its body, rapidly flowing through Li Yan’s meridians.

In an instant, it reached his arms and fingers, looking as if it was about to surge into the Li Fire Profound Yellow Fan.

Li Yan was startled at first, but then he did not stop it, allowing a stream of magical power to surge directly into the fan. The moment this magical power entered the Li Fire Profound Yellow Fan, it transformed into a sharp arrow, shooting straight for the Taiji Yin-Yang fish in the Blood River.

“Boom!”

In the blink of an eye, the two collided. In that small area of the Blood River, a huge wave surged high into the air.

Li Yan’s magical power, controlled by the small golden Nascent Soul figure, flowed endlessly, while the vortex in the Blood River was extremely small.

Soon, under the continuous impact of the magical power, the Taiji Yin-Yang fish in the vortex was blasted into four or five pieces in just over a breath’s time, and it vanished.

Li Yan had been observing carefully. When he saw this, he quickly stopped pouring in magical power. The small golden Nascent Soul figure in his body finally calmed down and sat down again.

At this time, the silver sand in the Blood River had already sunk to the bottom, scattered everywhere.

However, because Li Yan had attached an imprint to each grain beforehand, he quickly gathered them again and brought them out of the Li Fire Profound Yellow Fan.

Looking at the silver sand in his hands, most of its cold qi had now dissipated, and the “water-cloud” it condensed had become extremely thin.

But Li Yan did not immediately withdraw his Divine Sense. He continued to observe for the time it takes for an incense stick to burn. Finally, he confirmed one thing—the cold qi within this silver sand could slowly recover on its own.

This immediately reminded Li Yan of a similar situation. Every time he used the red clouds above the Blood River, they would disappear.

After a period of time, the consumed red clouds would also re-condense.

“One hot, one cold… Taiji Yin-Yang? When these two things are put together, they can actually produce a Taiji Yin-Yang fish pattern…”

“And… the power within it is very domineering. Even Divine Sense cannot penetrate it. This way, I can’t find out what’s inside…”

This similar scene triggered something in Li Yan’s mind, and he fell into deep thought.

He felt that the Blood River and the silver sand should be related, but he couldn’t rule out the possibility that this was a strange phenomenon caused by the incompatibility of water and fire.

But he was unable to investigate the details of the Taiji Yin-Yang fish that was generated, which prevented him from further confirmation.

After thinking for a while, Li Yan was still completely clueless about the origins of these two items.

Time ticked by. At a certain moment, Li Yan, who was deep in thought, suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

“Why do I have to get caught up in how it forms the Taiji Yin-Yang fish? What if I can use it directly in the outside world? Wouldn’t I be able to test it directly then…”

Although the small Nascent Soul figure had just launched an attack on its own initiative and even dispersed the Taiji Yin-Yang fish, that was just a small pinch of silver sand entering the Blood River, and it had already cost him twenty percent of his power.

He still had much more silver sand in his hands. And before he had the ability to investigate it clearly, why did he have to understand the reason?

If he could use it stably, like the Li Fire Profound Yellow Fan, then he would have temporarily achieved some of his goals.

Thinking of this, Li Yan no longer hesitated. With a flicker of his body, he flew out of the sect.

A quarter of an hour later, in a mountain valley, Li Yan stood facing a cliff, his Divine Sense spreading out in all directions.

A moment later, after confirming that there were no other cultivators around, Li Yan raised his hand, and the Li Fire Profound Yellow Fan appeared in his grasp.

As his Divine Sense communicated with it, a large mass of Blood River water suddenly appeared in the empty space in front of him. At the same time, Li Yan waved his other hand, and a small jade bottle floated in the air.

The bottle’s stopper opened automatically, and amidst a cloud of mist, half a bottle of silver sand flew out. It drew a silver arc like a long stream of water and plunged into the Blood River water in front of him.

“Buzz!”

A trembling sound suddenly rang out.

The moment the silver sand entered, a vortex the size of a washbasin rapidly formed in the air in front of Li Yan.

Then, a pattern of a red and white Taiji Yin-Yang fish instantly appeared on its surface.

“Go!”

Without any hesitation, Li Yan flicked his sleeve forward. The red and white Taiji Yin-Yang fish, propelled by his magical power, flew towards the cliff in front of him.

He didn’t yet know how to use this strange object, so he could only rely on his magical power to forcefully cast it out.

The red and white Taiji Yin-Yang fish, spinning rapidly, transformed into a streak of light and vanished in a flash.

“Hmm?”

Li Yan’s Divine Sense was firmly locked onto it. He found that after he had forcefully launched it, he could only see a flash of light, but he didn’t hear the slightest sound, as if it had silently merged into the void.

This gave him a start. This Taiji Yin-Yang fish, created by the combination of two unknown substances, cut through the sky without a sound, giving Li Yan an extremely eerie feeling from the bottom of his heart.

It was like a silent palm strike cutting through the darkness of the night.

The next moment, with a soft “chi!” sound, a look of astonishment appeared in Li Yan’s eyes.

On the cliff face in front of him, a smooth, washbasin-sized tunnel had appeared almost silently in an instant. It was all so sudden, so quiet.

And the two-colored Taiji Yin-Yang fish, spinning, had already penetrated more than four hundred zhang into the mountain in a flash. This all happened in the blink of an eye…

Four days later, when Li Yan returned to the sect again, he once again shut himself up in his Cave Residence.

Ren Yanyu, who had sensed his aura appear in the sect, did not show herself. She had sensed him leave a few days ago, and although she didn’t know what he was doing, she wouldn’t bother him for no reason.

By now, she and Shangguan Tianque had a relatively good understanding of Li Yan’s character. He was a cautious and prudent person, and he was also very measured in his actions and extremely trustworthy.

Therefore, Ren Yanyu was not worried that Li Yan would leave without saying goodbye if he were to go on a long journey. Li Yan’s actions on several occasions had made Ren Yanyu feel that she and her senior brother had been too cautious in the past.

Now, she was completely at ease with Li Yan.

Inside the Cave Residence, Li Yan sat at a table, holding a teacup, his brow furrowed in deep thought.

In the past few days, he had flown to the edge of the Heavenly Demon Prairie and found a fourth-rank Demonic Eye Illusion Wolf there. When he first entered the Immortal Spirit Realm, he had been captured and taken to a cave by this type of demonic beast.

Due to their bloodline, the Demonic Eye Illusion Wolves could at most reach the fifth rank in their lifetime, so they basically lived on the fringes of the Heavenly Demon Prairie.

And the place where the Demonic Eye Illusion Wolf that had captured Li Yan lived was on the very edge of the prairie’s edge. It didn’t dare to venture deeper into the prairie to compete with other demonic beasts for richer Spiritual Energy and more heavenly materials and earthly treasures.

In the Immortal Spirit Realm, Nascent Soul cultivators could only be considered low-level cultivators. Golden Core cultivators were just little crawlers who had just set foot on the path of immortality.

Therefore, finding a fourth-rank demonic beast was very easy on the Heavenly Demon Prairie. It was not like in the Mortal Realm, where Nascent Soul cultivators were like mythical dragons, seen only once in a blue moon.

After fighting with this fourth-rank Demonic Eye Illusion Wolf, Li Yan had tried using the Taiji Yin-Yang fish.

The result was that the moment the fourth-rank Demonic Eye Illusion Wolf was touched by the attack, not only was a defensive magical treasure on its body shredded to pieces, but even its defensive light shield and its armor-like fur were also shredded, its physical body disintegrating…

‘This object is equivalent to an attack with ninety percent of my physical strength. There is a lot of Blood River water, but the amount of silver sand is not much. I only need to use a portion of the Blood River water, otherwise, no amount of Blood River water will have any effect.’

‘According to this test, if I can find more silver sand, the Taiji Yin-Yang fish that is formed might even be able to deal with a Spirit Transformation cultivator…’

‘The biggest gain this time is not just this. Although my Divine Sense cannot enter the Taiji Yin-Yang fish to investigate, I can infuse my magical power into it and experience that marvelous power of Yin and Yang…’ Li Yan thought to himself.

The Taiji Yin-Yang fish formed by the Blood River and silver sand, if it could be considered a magical treasure, then it would be one that could be upgraded, similar to the Gui-Yi Water-Parting Spike.

But the red and white Taiji Yin-Yang fish was not something he had refined. It was simply a fusion of two unknown substances, crude and simple.

Moreover, the Taiji Yin-Yang fish did not need to be nurtured by Li Yan to be upgraded. Its power would increase as the amount of Blood River water and silver sand increased.

Li Yan was constantly thinking about the events of the past few days. He had the map jade slip from Donglin Tingyue, which recorded the location where she had obtained the silver sand.

Although it was almost impossible to find any more silver sand, Li Yan felt that he still had to give it a try. It would be good to find a time to go over and look for other clues.

But Li Yan couldn’t leave right away. In the process of manipulating the Taiji Yin-Yang fish, through his control over the past few days, he had actually gained some insight into the two completely different powers within it.

Li Yan knew that some insights could not be delayed. He needed to enter seclusion immediately to capture that wisp of understanding about the two completely different powers that lingered in his mind.

These two powers, explained in terms of the Five Elements, were multidirectional. They could be seen as the powers of Water and Fire from the perspective of Yin and Yang.

At the same time, you could also see them as the powers of Water and Metal, from the perspective of soft and hard.

You could even see them as the powers of Wood and Fire, from the perspective of life and destruction. Its inclusiveness was vast and varied.

The transformation and complementarity of each pair of forms, you could follow that path all the way. Once you fully comprehended it, it would be enough for you to set foot on a Great Dao.

After having this feeling, Li Yan could gain more knowledge and understanding of the transformation and application of the spiritual power of different attributes between the pairs of the Five Elements.

Especially now that Li Yan was at the Late-stage Nascent Soul Realm, a critical period where a “mortal” could transform into a “divinity,” and also a time to truly come into contact with the laws of heaven and earth and solidify his foundation.

Therefore, when he discovered this, Li Yan felt a sense of inexplicable excitement. To have the opportunity to comprehend the power of laws was a blessing that many cultivators dreamed of.

“Although this item is not a magical treasure, it should have a name…”