Chapter 466 – Refining Crystals

　　”This is the first swarm of flying ants we’ve encountered since we hit the road.” Han Li looked at the insect corpses on the ground and slowly asked.

　　”It’s the seventh swarm! Although we’ve encountered more frequent swarms, we’re finally not running into large swarms of more than ten thousand ants!” Yuan Yao, who was standing beside Han Li, replied back in a very well-behaved manner.

　　It was now half a day after the two of them had been on the road together. Hearing this woman’s words, Han Li frowned, his face somewhat somber, as if he had something on his mind.

　　After thinking about it, he reached out and waved at the swarm of Gold Devouring Insects that had swept away the insect corpses on the ground, and all of the flying insects transformed into a brilliant cloud of light and flew back into the Spirit Beast Pouch that floated in midair. Han Li stowed the Spirit Beast Pouch away in a nonchalant manner.

　　”What? Fellow Daoist’s expression seems a bit less than happy? We’ve already traveled through the most dangerous middle section of the desert, and it should be much safer back there.” Yuan Yao looked at Han Li’s face and blinked her beautiful eyes, asking with some confusion.

　　”Safe, you really think so?” Han Li glanced at Yuan Yao and said with a hint of a cold smile. “Could it be that there’s still some danger behind us?” Yuan Yao inadvertently frowned, somewhat less convinced as she asked back.

　　”I don’t know what other dangers are behind us, but there is one thing that I can be sure of, the ant swarms we encountered in front of us didn’t have any queen level existences, either there is only one queen in the entire desert, or we are lucky that several super ant swarms containing queens haven’t been encountered so far. It’s better to be careful on the journey behind us, if we’re still fine after another half a day of walking, then we’ll truly be safe.” Han Li’s expression was faint.

　　”Perhaps you’re overly concerned! This kind of flying ant is so powerful that it might not have a queen at all!” Yuan Yao’s face first turned white, but after a moment, she pretended to be fine and forced a smile.

　　”I hope so!” Han Li didn’t argue anything further. Although he knew very well in his heart that the Iron Fire Ants had a queen-level existence. And although the Queen Ant’s individual strength was average, it was said that its spiritual intelligence was frighteningly high, so it would definitely be extremely difficult to deal with.

　　Influenced by these words earlier, the two of them didn’t say anything more during the two hours or so of rushing.

　　However, something even more peculiar appeared, the journey behind them unexpectedly didn’t see a single ant colony. Now, it was Yuan Yao herself who realized that something was wrong, and a hint of uneasiness faintly appeared on her face.

　　However, when the two of them inadvertently toppled up a tall sand dune and glanced ahead, they were stunned!

　　”This is ……” Yuan Yao had a look of shock on her face, and her red lips moved a few times, but she didn’t even utter any words. Although Han Li’s face was a bit more subdued, his shocked face was equally as much.

　　Only in front of this dune on top of the sand, a huge crystal pillar about twenty to thirty feet tall appeared alone.

　　This crystal column is extremely cold, not only flickering with a faint white light, within it is also wrapped in an equally tall black giant. This giant is strangely ugly, angry eyes, but also has a big naked bald head, in the crystal column in a motionless, is really bizarre incomparable!

　　Han Li gazed for a moment, and his gaze immediately swept towards the nearby sandy ground. The ground was pockmarked with potholes, strewn with large or small holes, as if it had experienced a great battle.

　　A strange light flashed in Han Li’s eyes as he returned his gaze to the giant. Only this time, when he saw one of the giant’s eyes, he couldn’t help but let out a soft “eek”.

　　”What has Fellow Daoist Han discovered?” Yuan Yao heard Han Li’s voice and finally came back to his senses, unable to help but ask.

　　Han Li smiled faintly and didn’t reply to this woman’s inquiry, instead releasing his divine sense with half-smiled eyes. After determining that there was truly no one else lurking nearby, he actually walked directly down the dune and took large strides toward the crystal pillar.

　　”Hmph!” Seeing Han Li in this manner of pretending to be mysterious, Yuan Yao revealed a few unhappy colors as she sulked profusely, but could only follow. After all, once she was out of the range of Han Li’s Cold Ice Bead, she would have to expend her mana herself to withstand the high temperatures.

　　”Flying ants!” When walking along with Han Li to a distance of only ten or so feet away from the crystal pillar, Yuan Yao said with one red lip and a face full of shock.

　　With the current distance, she finally saw clearly the true appearance of the giant, which was actually coalesced by countless black flying ants! A glance from a distance was enough to make it look fake, it was truly unbelievable. However, these Iron Fire Ants were motionless in the crystal, and it was unknown whether they were alive or dead.

　　Han Li stopped at this point, looking at the crystal pillar in front of him and musing.

　　”Since this flying ant is dead, we’d better go! Don’t delay here.” Yuan Yao slowly said after surveying them for a few moments.

　　”How are you sure they’re dead? Maybe they’re still alive at this point!” Han Li was a bit puzzled.

　　”Alive, how is that possible?” Yuan Yao glanced at Han Li in surprise and continued with some disbelief.

　　”The Manifestation Sect’s famous ancient treasure, the Xuanhuang Mirror, don’t you know about it? As long as this treasure shines on a living being, it will immediately scatter its soul and have this kind of crystal prism emerge around its body! After a few more days, the body within the crystal prism will also be reduced to nothing.”

　　”Never heard of it!” Han Li replied honestly, causing this woman to widen her eyes and become somewhat speechless.

　　”In that case, these bugs should have been exterminated by that Wan Tianming’s hand.” Han Li said thoughtfully after circling around the huge crystal pillar for a few times.

　　”If not him or who else! What are you trying to hit on? These crystals can’t be destroyed by ordinary magic treasures except for the fact that they will melt away on their own at a certain time. Otherwise, the Xuanhuang Mirror wouldn’t have such a great reputation.” Yuan Yao glanced at Han Li as if she had guessed a few moments of his thoughts and said with a light smile.

　　Han Li heard this, but calmly glanced at her. With a touch of both hands toward his waist, all of his spirit beast pouches were sacrificed, and the gigantic Cloud of Gold Devouring Insects suddenly appeared in midair.

　　”Go!” Han Li nonchalantly used his finger to point at the crystal pillar, and immediately the gold and silver-colored insect cloud pressed down at once, instantly crawling all over the top of the crystal pillar, densely packed and impervious to the elements.

　　”You still really want to hit these flying ant remnants? Although your bugs are powerful, it’s impossible for them to bite this ……” Yuan Yao’s words were only half spoken, and her voice came to an abrupt end.

　　This was because the giant wrapped in that white crystal pillar, as visible to her naked eye, flew and shortened from top to bottom, and in the blink of an eye, the giant’s head completely disappeared.

　　Yuan Yao’s small mouth opened wide, unable to close it for half a day.

　　In this woman’s shocked gaze, the Gold Devouring Insect devoured such a large crystal pillar, even the crystal with the giant inside, leaving only an egg-sized crystalline sphere-like item on the ground, glistening with a mysterious black light.

　　When Han Li saw this object, his face revealed a hint of a smile, a few steps walked over, and fished it into his hands.

　　This thing is called “refining crystal”, is that the iron fire ant queen daily after eating ore, will be spit back to exist in the abdomen of a rare material. Although very few cultivators knew about it, Han Li had also read the rumors in a very old book and didn’t know if they were true or not! When he saw the iron fire ant queen that existed as the giant’s eyeball, he suddenly remembered this matter and gave it a try, not realizing that he had actually obtained such a piece of refining crystal.

　　This is the best auxiliary material to strengthen the magic treasure, because any magic treasure as long as mixed into some of this material, not only the power will grow a lot, the body of the magic treasure of the degree of solidity will immediately rise to an unimaginable point, it is difficult to be something easy to cut off and destroy.

　　I don’t know if Wan Tian Ming didn’t know about this item, or if he forgot about it in a moment of negligence, but it was cheaper for him. Now, as long as he was given some time to re-sacrifice the Green Bamboo Bee Cloud Sword, the power of this set of magic treasures would surely be even more superior.

　　Yuan Yao obviously didn’t know what “refining crystals” were, but looking at Han Li’s joyful face, she also knew that it must be something good. However, she had the good sense not to ask anything she shouldn’t have.

　　The two of them went straight on their way without saying a word.

　　This was a humble stone hall, fifty to sixty feet wide and about seven to eight feet tall. In addition to a teleportation array in the center, each of the four sides had a huge green stone door several feet high.

　　At this time, the doors were tightly closed, closing this place into a large-scale cell-like existence. Inside the stone hall, there were also a large number of various types of stone tables and benches that were all the same, dozens of them.

　　On these stone benches, there were a sparse number of five or six cultivators with different looks. Extreme Yin Ancestor, Confucian shirt old man and that Wan Tian Ming are clearly present, the rest of the cultivators are also late JieDan appearance, there is not a slightly weaker cultivator.

　　But at the moment, everyone of their faces gloomy, no one interested in saying something, the stone hall is filled with a depressing atmosphere!

　　Extreme Yin Ancestor was even more gloomy and terrifying, his face was completely blue, glaring at the teleportation array in the center, the fierce light in his eyes flickering endlessly!