Han Li’s gaze focused on the black cloak the longest out of the three treasures.

This cloak’s appearance was very peculiar, consisting of two layers. The interior was made of silver thread, and the exterior was made of the feathers of an unknown bird. The feathers emitted a fluctuating dark-red blood light from within the light barrier, appearing rather bizarre.

This was also the first time Han Li saw this type of magic treasure, and he was very curious about its abilities. Han Li guessed that this ancient treasure had either defensive or stealth properties. Both of these were something that Han Li direly needed if he wanted to survive the countless powerful enemies inside the Inner Hall.

Han Li appeared hesitant as he gazed at the three magic treasures. As soon as he picked an item, he would be teleported out of the building. He had to pick carefully.

It was reasonable to say that the golden mirror was the safest choice. Han Li was almost certain that it held significant power and would prove to provide an immediate and great increase to his strength. As for the odd five-colored copper bands, they could prove to surprise him. Their synergistic properties and multi-colored brilliance caused it to appear rather mysterious. As for the cloak, there was a good chance that it would also be immediately useful. Perhaps it could save his life during a moment of danger.

Han Li’s focus continuously changed between the three items.

Although he would normally be happy about being able to acquire such powerful treasures with ease, he was worried about what would be gained or lost from choosing one over the other. A while later, Han Li took a deep breath and grew calm.

He muttered to himself for a moment more before a spirited light flashed from his eyes as wild imagination unfolded in his mind. These unexpected thoughts caused Han Li’s heart to become restless.

According to Han Li’s knowledge of formation spells and restrictions, the room’s high grade involuntary teleportation restrictions couldn’t be tricked or worked around apart from finding the central crux of the formation or forcefully erasing the restriction from the entire room. Once someone was caught in the restrictions, they would be automatically teleported out.

Both of those options were out of reach for Han Li. Finding the central crux of the room’s restrictions was something that would take a grandmaster level formation expert several years to accomplish. The very thought of it was something best left alone. As for forcefully erasing the formation, it was only something that Han Li would attempt if he were out of his mind. Given the many Nascent Soul eccentrics that clearly hadn’t succeeded, he would have to be deluded to think that a Core Formation cultivator like himself could succeed.

However, he did possess the formation breaking insights of the genius spell formation master Xin Ruyin. Her records described a theoretical response to area restrictions that could disable an area’s restrictions temporarily. Although it was only for a short instant, it would give Han Li enough time to acquire an extra ancient treasure.

This method required the cultivator’s own spiritual power to be completely severed from the energy contained room, leaving not the slightest connection for the duration.

After Xin Ruyin wrote this in her records, she self-mockingly added that even a Nascent Soul cultivator couldn’t perform such a feat; the thought was but an indulgence moment of her imagination. If a cultivator truly had such amazing abilities, they wouldn’t have to go through the trouble of this as they could rely on their own strength to forcibly break through the formations.

After all, the cultivators of this world were only at most capable of Qi concealment techniques that could hide themselves from others. How could they possibly sever their own connection from the spiritual Qi of heaven and earth?

But when Han Li read this inside his cave residence, he immediately thought of his Gold Devouring Beetle’s bizarre capability of devouring the energies of Heaven and Earth. This roused enough interest in him to perform a small test with his Gold Devouring Beetles. He had spent a short amount of time on it and regarded it as a momentary diversion to be later forgotten. But now that he recalled all of this, Han Li couldn’t suppress his burning excitement.

After a moment of careful consideration, Han Li felt that this had a large chance of success. Even if it failed, he’d still be able to acquire one ancient treasure and would suffer no loss.

With that thought, Han Li no longer hesitated. He waved his two arms and brought forth the spirit beast pouches on his body. Several tens of thousands of Gold Devouring Beetles flew off, transforming into a huge, buzzing cloud of insects that spiralled around Han Li.

Han Li paid no attention to the insect swarm and turned his gaze towards the three ancient treasures. After some more thought, he floated over to the dark red cloak with his insect swarm closely following after him.

When Han Li was about three meters away from the cloak, Han Li felt a slight change in the surrounding spiritual Qi. He hastily stopped and wore a solemn expression.

His hands suddenly formed an incantation seal, and used a series of whistles. The Gold Devouring Beetles that were surrounding Han Li suddenly became restless, and they charged towards Han Li like an arrow. In the blink of an eye, they were covering his entire body in dense folds, immersing him in a sea of silver.

While Han Li was covered in the beetles, his whistles did not cease, but rather, they became even sharper.

Not long after, the beetles on his body started releasing soft cries, echoing Han Li’s whistles. The beetles’ cries gradually became louder until their mouths were gaping wide. Their continuous breathes appeared synchronized to a bizarre degree.

At that moment, Han Li halted his whistling and became silent. An incredible scene followed.

The cries of the insects crawling over Han Li’s body diverged into high and low, gradually bringing forth specks of black light. As more flickering specks of light appeared, they grew larger. When they eventually touched, they fused together, becoming larger blots of black light. These black blots gradually grew larger and more numerous until they formed a large sphere.

The black sphere appeared like a blooming chrysanthemum. The flower-like sphere slowly blossomed and unfolded as the black light underneath continuously grew larger, forming a profoundly black armor underneath. This impenetrable armor covered both Han Li and the beetles.

The beetles’ cries immediately disappeared with the appearance of the armor. Apart from pitch-black, nothing else could be seen from the armor. It was unknown whether it was simply incapable of being seen or was completely void of color.

[TL: see ‘Vantablack’]

In that very instant, Han Li began to move. A strange hand of jet-black light moved to snatch the nearby cloak at the speed of lightning. At the same time, Han Li clumsily turned around and floated towards the five colored bands.

In the same instant Han Li grabbed the cloak, he was surrounded in brilliant blue light. The countless rays of light swept over him, but after they touched the strange black armor, they immediately disappeared into the black light without a trace. However, this didn’t cause the blue light to retract. Instead, it grew increasingly overbearing and attempted to violently suppress the black armor with all its strength, causing it to sway on the verge of collapse.

Han Li was burning with impatience, but his movements still remained careful and smooth, for fear that he would disturb something else.

Traveling a mere twenty meters, Han Li felt as if he had made a difficult trek for two hours before having finally arrived in front of the five colored copper bands. While forcefully suppressing his wild delight, Han Li swiftly grabbed the bands with his hand of black light.

At nearly the same time his hand closed around the copper bands, Han Li’s black armor was overwhelmed by the blue light, causing it to loudly shatter. The armor dissolved into little blots before completely disappearing.

Before Han Li could even react, he was drawn into the blue light and the world changed around him, causing him to disappear without a trace.

In a flash of blinding blue light, Han Li appeared in a small stone room. After swaying a few times, he managed to find his bearings and stand straight before carefully examining his surroundings. He immediately let out a sigh of relief. Fortunately, there wasn’t a single person around. Otherwise, they would have caught the extremely abnormal sight of him being covered in layers of crawling beetles.

Having finished pondering, Han Li whistled. In response, the Gold Devouring Beetles flew off of his body and into a sparkling gold-silver cloud above his head.

Without paying them much mind, Han Li hastily looked at the two items in his hands. Although he had previously seen them many times, Han Li could not hold back the thrill from having the items in his hands.

He gently stroked each of the two ancient treasures for a moment. The cloak was extremely light and emitted a bit of heat. As for the five copper bands, they were ice-cold to the touch.

After admiring the two treasures for some time, his attention shifted to the stone room.

It was completely empty apart from the transportation formation that brought him here and a rectangular passageway that appeared completely desolate. There was nothing else of interest in the room.