After injecting that wisp of spiritual sense into the puppet, he was able to clearly see everything within the pond through his spiritual connection with it, and the water in the pond turned out to be even more viscous than he had predicted.
After diving to a depth of around 30 feet, a burst of repelling force suddenly erupted from the bottom of the lake, and an enormous compressional force also converged from all sides, making it extremely difficult for the puppet to descend any further.
After diving down by roughly 10 more feet, the repelling and compressional force became several times more powerful, and the puppet was stopped cold in its tracks.
At the same time, a string of loud cracks and pops rang out from the puppet's body, indicating that it was about to be crushed to a pulp at any moment.
Han Li swept the fragment of his spiritual sense through the surrounding area, but detected nothing aside from the water in the pond.
His brows furrowed slightly as he stood in the air above the pond, and the giant wolf puppet gradually began to swim through the pond at the same depth at his behest.
It was moving extremely slowly, but the pond was over just 1,000 feet in size, so the puppet managed to scour through it after only around 15 minutes, but it still didn't discover anything.
Han Li paused momentarily before waving a hand toward the pond, and the giant wolf puppet emerged. At the same time, a ball of white light flew out of it before vanishing into his body in a flash.
Han Li gave the puppet a brief inspection, then stowed it away after determining that there was nothing amiss about it.
Of course, he wasn't about to give up just like that. As soon as the giant wolf puppet was stowed away, he raised a hand to release a black spirit beast bracelet.
Golden light flashed from the bracelet, and over 100 huge beetles flew out of it; these were none other than his mature Gold Devouring Beetles.
Han Li then immediately made a hand seal, and a burst of white light emerged from his glabella before splitting up into over 100 translucent white threads, each of which plunged into a golden beetle with unerring accuracy.
All of the beetles surged forth at once, plunging into the pond as balls of golden light before quickly diving into its depths.
The Gold Devouring Beetles possessed virtually indestructible bodies and incredible strength, so they would definitely be able to descend further than the giant wolf puppet had.
Mere moments later, the Gold Devouring Beetles had descended to a depth of around 80 feet, and only then were they beginning to slow down slightly.
However, the bottom of the pond was still nowhere in sight.
Han Li's expression changed slightly upon detecting this, and he began to consider using his Purple-striped Gold Devouring Beetles.
However, right as the Gold Devouring Beetles descended arduously to a depth of around 100 feet, an elated look finally appeared on his face.
A patch of white sand had finally become visible at this depth, and Han Li immediately instructed his Gold Devouring Beetles to split up and search through the area.
Soon, they discovered seven lotus flowers in two secluded corners of the pond.
Each flower was around a foot tall, and their stems were as translucent as crystals. There were also countless translucent threads that could be seen throughout the stem and the entirety of the flowers.
Among the seven flowers, three of them were only fist-sized flower buds, while another three had less than half of their petals unfurled, and there was only one flower that was actually in full bloom.
The lotus flowers that were yet to fully blossom were all of a mundane yellow color, while the single flower that was in full bloom was of a fleshy red color with patterns that resembled blood vessels and meridians running along its surface, creating a very intriguing sight to behold.
Not only was Han Li not disappointed by this, he was ecstatic.
There was very little information about the Spirit Cleansing Pond and Clean Spirit Lotus circulating in the Spirit Realm, but seeing as he had taken such a huge risk to venture into the Elder Devil Realm, he had naturally done everything in his power to gather as much information as possible.
According to the information he had accrued, the Clean Spirit Lotus was something that could only be born in the Spirit Cleansing Pond, and before it fully blossomed, it wouldn't be much more useful than an ordinary spirit medicine.
However, when it did develop into full bloom, it would be able to maintain that state for 1,000 years. If no one picked it during that time, then it would slowly transform into pure spiritual Qi that fused into the Spirit Cleansing Pond. After that, it would take several thousand years for one to blossom again.
As such, prior to entering the Spirit Cleansing Pond, no one could guarantee that they would definitely be able to encounter a Clean Spirit Lotus that was in full bloom. Furthermore, due to the large number of people in their group, even if they were to encounter one or two fully blossomed lotus flowers, each person would only receive two or three flower petals at most.
However, now that everyone else was dead, he would be able to take this entire lotus flower for himself.
Han Li forcibly repressed the elation in his own heart as he instructed his Gold Devouring Beetles to search through the rest of the Spirit Cleansing Pond, but they didn't find any other spirit medicines aside from these Clean Spirit Lotuses.
This was no surprise considering that the fearsome pressure of the pond would make it impossible for normal spirit medicines to survive.
Furthermore, the spiritual power in the pond was far too pure compared to that of the outside world, so if other spirit medicine seeds were to fall into the pond, they would immediately self-detonate.
Just as these thoughts were flashing through Han Li's mind, the Gold Devouring Beetles that he had sent into the pond suddenly became very excited.
Han Li hurriedly cast these errant thoughts aside and immediately began to inspect the beetles with his spiritual sense, upon which his expression changed drastically.
He quickly instructed one of the Gold Devouring Beetles to emerge from the pond, and it obliged in a rather reluctant manner.
As soon as the beetle flew out of the water, Han Li began to carefully inspect it.
On the surface, it didn't appear to be any different from the other beetles, but its aura seemed to have undergone a certain change. It wasn't purely weaker or more powerful; it was more like a fundamental change.
Han Li's brows furrowed tightly, and a thought suddenly occurred to him as blue light flashed within his eyes.
In the next instant, a stunned look appeared on his face.
With his spirit eyes, he was able to detect that some white patterns that were undetectable to the naked eye had appeared on the beetle's golden shell. The patterns were virtually invisible, but he was certain that his Gold Devouring Beetles didn't previously have this feature on their bodies.
With that in mind, Han Li quickly waved a hand toward the spirit beast bracelet that was hovering in mid-air, and another Gold Devouring Beetle instantly emerged before landing obediently onto his palm.
He raised the Gold Devouring Beetle to eye-level, then carefully scrutinized it to find that it was just as he had suspected, there were no white patterns on the shell of this Gold Devouring Beetle.
It was clear that this change had only occurred after the Gold Devouring Beetles had entered the Spirit Cleansing Pond.
Could it be that this Spirit Cleansing Pond had an effect on Gold Devouring Beetles as well?
Han Li immediately summoned another mature Gold Devouring Beetle to return to him from the pond, and upon close examination, he discovered that this one also had white patterns on its shell.
As such, there was no longer any doubt in this mind. It seemed that the Spirit Cleansing Pond was capable of triggering a mutation within these mature Gold Devouring Beetles; the only caveat was that he didn't know what this mutation would entail.
Instead of being elated by this discovery and releasing all of his Gold Devouring Beetles, his brows furrowed slightly, and he summoned all of the remaining Gold Devouring Beetles in the pond back to him before stowing them away into the spirit beast bracelet.
He knew that the Gold Devouring Beetles had only managed to mutate so quickly as they had absorbed some of the mysterious energy within the pond. However, this energy was the key to transforming his body, so before he had a chance to absorb it, he certainly wasn't willing to allow the Gold Devouring Beetles to strip away more of this energy.
Otherwise, if he were to fail in transforming his own body due to insufficient energy, he would be left sorely regretting his decision, even if his Gold Devouring Beetles were to become significantly more powerful after undergoing their mutations.
After all, the most important thing for him was to reach the Grand Ascension Stage; everything else was secondary in comparison.
Of course, after he underwent his transformation, he would release his Gold Devouring Beetles and allow them to absorb the energy within the pond to their hearts' content.
Having made those decisions, Han Li immediately stowed the spirit beast bracelet away, then swept a sleeve through the air to release a small golden beast amid a flash of golden light; it was none other than the Leopard Kirin Beast!
"It's very unlikely that someone else will enter this place, but as a safety precaution, keep a lookout after I enter the pond. If someone really does try to barge into this place, make sure to keep them at bay to the best of your abilities," Han Li instructed.
"I'll be sure to do my best, Master," the Leopard Kirin Beast replied in the tender voice of a little girl before abruptly vanishing into thin air.
After that, azure light flashed from Han Li's body, and a faint green humanoid figure emerged.
This was a humanoid figure with the exact same appearance as Han Li, and it was none other than the immortal zoysia spirit body.
Immediately thereafter, Han Li laid a hand onto his own head, and a black Nascent Soul emerged amid a cloud of black Qi.
As soon as the second Nascent Soul appeared, it flew toward the spirit body and vanished into it in a flash at Han Li's behest.
The spirit body then opened its eyes and gave Han Li a faint smile before flying toward the lush forest nearby as a streak of green light.
After that, Han Li produced a stack of formation plates and formation flags before tossing them all around the pond, instantly creating three profound temporary formations that surrounded the entire place.
Han Li was making sure to spare no effort in setting up safety precautions against any potential plot that the two devilish patriarchs outside could be hatching against him.
Even though there was no way the Leopard Kirin Beast, spirit body, and these formations could stop a pair of devilish patriarchs, as long as they were able to buy him some time, he wouldn't be caught completely off guard.
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