Han Li immediately spotted the five "Blood-Condensed Five-Element Pills" among these items and was overjoyed.
He first took them from the beast puppet's mouth and carefully inspected them.
From the massive spiritual power contained within the pills, Han Li confirmed they were genuine, then carefully took out an exquisite jade box from his storage bag and stored the five pills safely.
Although Han Li didn't know the specific effects of these "Blood-Condensed Five-Element Pills," seeing how urgently the Emperor of Yue had guarded them, he realized the young prince of the Xin Palace had likely told the truth about their usefulness for Core Formation. His heart surged with excitement.
Afterward, Han Li's gaze turned to the other items: a pitch-black bowl, a blood-red spike about an inch long, and a jade slip radiating a grayish-white aura.
Looking at these items, Han Li felt a chill run through him.
These objects were clearly magical artifacts used exclusively by demonic cultivators and evil practitioners. They might even carry restrictions or curses, so he didn't rush to handle them. Instead, he took a light breath, and his hands emanated a faint glow, suddenly enveloped in a thin layer of azure light.
Only then did Han Li feel at ease enough to pick up the jade slip and examine it.
Apart from its somewhat eerie aura, the jade slip indeed seemed free of any restrictions. Han Li exhaled in relief, then slowly extended his spiritual sense into it.
As soon as his spiritual sense entered the jade slip, Han Li stood motionless, but his expression grew strange—sometimes filled with surprise, sometimes extremely dejected, and finally settling into a look of utmost caution. There was even a hint of rare fear in his eyes.
After a full cup of tea's time, Han Li withdrew his spiritual sense, but remained somewhat dazed.
What the jade slip contained was both within his expectations and somewhat surprising.
It indeed recorded the cultivation techniques of the Black Evil Cult members. For instance, the young prince practiced the "Black Evil Asura Art," the four Blood Attendants cultivated the "Evil Demon Art," and the Emperor of Yue practiced the "Blood Refinement Divine Light," among others.
What astonished Han Li was that all these techniques mentioned a certain "Dark Yin Scripture."
This piqued Han Li's curiosity greatly!
But even after hastily searching through the entire jade slip, Han Li couldn't find any information about where this scripture was located.
Helpless, he had to give up on this thought and turned his attention to some other strange secret arts recorded in the slip.
Several of them made Han Li's eyes light up with joy. They not only resolved some long-standing doubts he had, but also revealed the true purpose of the "Blood-Condensed Five-Element Pills."
Han Li calmed himself and read carefully.
It turned out that "Blood-Condensed Five-Element Pills" were similar to inner cores of spirit beasts, which cultivators who practiced the "Evil Demon Art" could condense within their bodies. This was also the primary purpose for which the "Evil Demon Art" was created.
The reason the four Blood Attendants could transform into Evil Demons, and could enter the Foundation Establishment stage without consuming Foundation Establishment Pills, was precisely because they had formed these pills.
However, according to the description in the "Evil Demon Art," even without using blood sacrifice techniques, practitioners of this art—due to its rapid cultivation speed—could forget about ever achieving Core Formation. Foundation Establishment was the highest level this art could reach.
In fact, not only the "Evil Demon Art," but almost all the other techniques shared similar fatal flaws that prevented Core Formation.
Naturally, their cultivation speed, combined with the assistance of blood sacrifice techniques, increased at an astonishing rate.
The appearance of the "Blood-Condensed Five-Element Pills" seemed designed to compensate for such flaws in these techniques.
This led to the mention of a secret technique in the jade slip called the "Evil Pill Art."
According to this secret technique, even a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator with the poorest aptitude, if they consumed the "Blood-Condensed Five-Element Pills" as prescribed, would have a one-third chance of condensing a "pseudo-Golden Core"—an "Evil Pill"—similar to the Golden Core of a Core Formation cultivator.
When the Evil Pill first formed, its power was slightly inferior to a true Golden Core, but not by much, and it also possessed the miraculous effect of extending one's lifespan.
When Han Li read this, his heart nearly jumped out of his chest. A one-third chance of Core Formation—these "Blood-Condensed Five-Element Pills" were simply heaven-defying!
He almost immediately had the impulse to grab those five pills and consume them to try!
But the subsequent mention of the Evil Pill's drawbacks left Han Li stunned.
It stated that since the "Evil Pill" was essentially an artificial Golden Core, once formed, it would never grow any further. This meant the cultivator's cultivation level would never increase again, remaining permanently at the early Core Formation stage.
If that were all, Han Li still wouldn't have abandoned this shortcut.
The method of "Three-Revolution Vitality Art" to dissolve one's cultivation three times and then condense a Golden Core was simply too fraught with obstacles and too uncertain. Even if he did dissolve his cultivation three times, Han Li had no confidence at all.
After all, this technique was merely a hypothesis by the expert who created the "Azure Origin Sword Art"! No one had ever actually practiced it.
The "Evil Pill Art" was different. From its tone, it was clear that someone had used this technique before.
A one-third chance—the temptation for Han Li was simply too great!
As for how forming an "Evil Pill" meant a cultivator could no longer advance to the Nascent Soul stage, Han Li didn't even consider such a distant prospect.
The "Nascent Soul stage" was something Han Li only occasionally fantasized about in his dreams at night.
For him now, achieving Core Formation was his ultimate goal. Whether he would then dare to hope for condensing a Nascent Soul—well, that could be decided when the time came.
But the subsequent explanation of the "Evil Pill Art" left Han Li dumbfounded.
It continued: once the "Evil Pill" formed within a cultivator's body, it would continuously release Evil Demon Qi. Over time, this would gradually erode the cultivator's consciousness.
Although the erosion wouldn't lead to the terrifying outcome of losing one's mind and forgetting one's kin, the resulting mental dullness and gradual stupidity were unavoidable.
This sent a chill down Han Li's spine!
He knew that what he had always been confident about was his sharp mind, which was his greatest asset in the cultivation world.
Therefore, upon seeing this, Han Li struggled for only a moment before completely abandoning any thought of using the "Blood-Condensed Five-Element Pills."
At this moment, Han Li felt incredibly frustrated. Didn't this mean that the "Blood-Condensed Five-Element Pills," which he had gone through so much trouble to obtain, were essentially useless—nothing but a chicken rib?
But after a moment's thought, Han Li realized something was off.
If that were the case, why would the Emperor of Yue specifically cultivate these pills?
Given his cunning nature, he certainly wouldn't consume them himself.
Thinking of this, Han Li's attention turned to another secret art he was very interested in—"External Body Clone."
This renowned top-tier demonic secret art was something Han Li had long heard about.
Although such "clone" techniques varied widely in their specific methods and effects, any type of "clone" art was undoubtedly considered a life-or-death treasure by demonic cultivators. They were essentially the highest secrets of each sect.
The seven great sects of the State of Yue had tried every means to collect related techniques, but ultimately found nothing!
When Han Li skimmed through this technique, his heart was ecstatic—he had finally found a way to use the "Blood-Condensed Five-Element Pills."
If his guess was correct, the Emperor of Yue must have had the same plan, which was why he had spared no expense in cultivating the four Blood Attendants to condense the "Blood-Condensed Five-Element Pills."
And that blue-robed man whose cultivation he had absorbed, who died under the Heavenly Thunder Seed, must have been his External Body Clone.
Only this could explain why the man had willingly allowed his cultivation to be absorbed without any resistance.
Han Li suppressed his wandering thoughts and quickly scanned through the remaining secret arts.
The "Marrow-Refining Pill" and blood sacrifice techniques—since Han Li himself had never practiced demonic arts, he naturally had no interest in them.
Only the method for refining the "Blood Spirit Spike" caught his eye, and Han Li made a mental note of it.
After withdrawing his consciousness, Han Li took some time to digest everything before turning his attention to the other two items.
The blood-red spike he had obtained was the solidified form of the Blood Spirit Spike after leaving the body—it should be usable as a magical artifact!
As for the pitch-black bowl, it was a rare magical artifact called the "Soul-Gathering Bowl," specifically designed to contain cultivators' souls and spiritual consciousness. Once inside this artifact, all souls and spirits would gradually lose their sentience, becoming ordinary wandering ghosts, exclusively used by evil practitioners for control and refinement.
Han Li merely observed this "Soul-Gathering Bowl" briefly before the frigid yin energy within forced him to shudder. He hastily stored the bowl in his storage bag.
Han Li knew clearly that since he hadn't practiced such yin arts, he naturally couldn't utilize this artifact.
Given how cold and sinister this artifact was, who knew how many cultivators' souls had perished within it. Prolonged contact with such an object would likely only make him seriously ill!