"Chila!" A soft sound echoed.

The black iron needle on the stone plate trembled slightly, followed by a snake-like black electric arc that shot out and struck Han Li's fingertip.

A sharp pain shot directly into his soul, causing him to gasp sharply. His brow twitched involuntarily, and he withdrew his hand.

Hearing the commotion inside, the old Daoist's remnant soul, who had regained some strength in the Soul Nourishing Furnace, couldn't help but let out a gloating cackle.

Before he could finish laughing, however, the Soul Nourishing Furnace was swept away by a streak of azure light and dragged into the hall.

"Ouch, you little..." The golden light on the ground enveloped him once more, and the old Daoist immediately let out a miserable cry.

With a flick of his hand, Han Li conjured a circular arc of light that enveloped the entire Soul Nourishing Furnace, silencing the old Daoist's chilling screams.

"Little... brat, you're ruthless. Back in my day, this Daoist..." The old Daoist said weakly, his expression miserable.

"Tell me, what's going on with the things in here?" Han Li held the incense burner and raised an eyebrow at the sundial on the stone platform, interrupting the old Daoist.

"How would this Daoist know... alas... let's talk nicely, don't..."

Before he could finish speaking, Han Li raised his hand to remove the layer of light, and he immediately begged for mercy.

"...This is the Taiyin Sundial, and it is the core of this secret realm. Only by completely destroying it can you leave this place," the old Daoist said weakly.

"Just destroy it?" Hearing this, Han Li's eyes flashed with a hint of eager anticipation.

"This Daoist advises you, with your current strength, thinking of taking on this object head-on is like hitting a rock with an egg. If the Yin lightning it releases backfires, you might end up with your soul scattered," the old Daoist suddenly said with a cold laugh, his tone quite solemn.

"You said before that if you have mastered the laws of time or space, it would be of great benefit to cracking the core of the secret realm, right?" Han Li asked, pondering.

"That's only natural. You must know that the laws of time and space are one of the three supreme laws of this realm. How can they be compared to ordinary laws! The law of space is the source of all spatial barriers and restrictions. Using it to crack them is tracing back to the origin. As for the law of time, it's because this Taiyin Sundial is a semi-immortal artifact that contains the power of time..." the old Daoist explained eloquently.

Hearing this, Han Li frowned.

During his previous probing, he had not detected any power of the law of time from it.

"Senior, let's be frank. I happen to cultivate the law of time. Why didn't I discover any time power on this sundial during my exploration just now?" Han Li interrupted the old Daoist's rambling and asked in a deep voice.

"What, you're not kidding, kid, are you really cultivating the law of time? Don't try to fool me, Daoist. Tell me, have you condensed a thread of time? How many?" Hearing this, the old Daoist was overjoyed and stood up from the furnace, but then a hint of suspicion appeared on his face.

"Senior, please answer my question first," Han Li said expressionlessly.

"Alright, alright, Daoist will believe you for now! But now that I think about it, Daoist has long seen that your kid's bones are clear and your appearance is extraordinary, so you must be no ordinary person... As for not being able to discover the strangeness on the Taiyin Sundial, it seems that your thread of time is at most five. Otherwise, you wouldn't have been unable to discover it," the old Daoist chuckled, rambling on first before finally speaking.

"Are you saying that my mastery of the law of time is not enough?" Hearing this, Han Li raised an eyebrow.

"Let's put it this way, even if you cultivate a time law cultivation method, if you want to destroy this core, you must have at least a Golden Immortal mid-stage cultivation base, and master at least... at least six threads of the law of time, to have a chance of doing it," the old Daoist continued.

"Golden Immortal mid-stage... To be honest, Senior, my Golden Immortal early-stage cultivation base has not been completely stabilized yet. If I want to cultivate to the Golden Immortal mid-stage, it will be impossible without tens of thousands of years," Han Li frowned.

"Good kid, you're really talking big. You want to advance to the mid-stage in just 10,000 years? Let me tell you, if you cultivate the three supreme laws, don't even think about crossing this hurdle without a million years! And that's still underestimating it," the old Daoist glared and scoffed.

Hearing this, Han Li fell silent. The old Daoist's words were not alarmist. Without the assistance of Golden Immortal compatible pills, he was indeed not confident that he could advance to the mid-stage within tens of thousands of years.

"But you don't have to be discouraged, kid. Speaking of which, you're lucky to have met me, Daoist. I still have a way that might be able to help you. I just don't know if you dare to use it," the old Daoist sized up Han Li, his tone slightly provocative.

"What way?" Han Li looked at the wisp of remnant soul and asked.

"The difficulty in advancing to the Golden Immortal mid-stage lies in opening the twenty-four immortal apertures. The difficulty of these twenty-four apertures is far greater than that of the thirty-six apertures in the True Immortal Realm. However, I have a method of using baleful aura to冲击the immortal apertures, which can greatly shorten your cultivation time," the old Daoist said, shaking his head.

"Baleful aura? Such an unorthodox path, I'm afraid there will be endless troubles after using it, right?" Han Li frowned and said with a sneer.

"Who says it isn't? Otherwise, why would I ask you if you dare to? You can listen to me finish speaking, and as for whether or not to cultivate, that's your own business. In fact, baleful aura, like magic power, exists in your body, but under normal circumstances, it never manifests. As for the troubles, it's that there will be baleful aura remaining in the immortal apertures you open. As for the specific impact, it varies from person to person, and Daoist can't explain it clearly," the old Daoist chuckled and explained.

After speaking, the old Daoist suddenly remembered something and quickly said, "Oh right, there's another drawback, which is that this method, like the Refining God Technique, is not tolerated by the Heavenly Court. Once discovered, it's likely to attract巡察仙使, which would be very troublesome."

Hearing this, Han Li habitually揉了揉鼻子 and fell into deep thought.

This method sounds so evil, the drawbacks must be more than what the old Daoist said. As for being intolerable to the Heavenly Court, he doesn't care. Anyway, he has already cultivated the Refining God Technique. Cultivating one is intolerable, and cultivating two is still intolerable, so there's no difference.

"If I use this method to open the immortal apertures, how much time can I shorten?" After a long while, Han Li raised his head and asked.

"Well, that also varies from person to person. Those with thick baleful aura... In other words, those who have killed more immortals will naturally easily open the immortal apertures. As for those with sparse baleful aura, their speed will naturally be slow. However, according to me, you don't look like you have much, so speeding up by one time would be good. But don't underestimate this one-time speed increase. Even top-grade pills may not have this effect!" The old Daoist glanced at Han Li and said with a light laugh.

"How do I check whether the baleful aura is thick or not?" Han Li ignored the old Daoist's words and asked.

"That's easy. I'll teach you a spell to manifest the baleful aura. Listen carefully." After saying that, the old Daoist recited a strange incantation.

Following the old Daoist's instructions, Han Li clasped his hands in a strange hand seal and began to吟诵 the incantation.

"One Qi divides Yin and Yang, Xuan Yin has three煞... Fierce煞 gathers at Yongquan, Blood煞 resides in Neiguan...煞 rises from the Tianling, manifesting as a冥灵!"

"Appear!"

With Han Li's command, he stomped his foot fiercely, and the entire hall shook.

Streams of black Qi, like smoke, rose from the top of his head, spreading out like black clouds, covering the entire dome of the hall. His body was also surrounded by strands of thick, dark, and substantial black smoke.

This black Qi emerged from his body continuously, intertwining and rolling, as thick as ink.

Han Li's entire aura changed, and his baleful aura soared into the sky.

The old Daoist's remnant soul stayed inside the incense burner, staring at Han Li, who looked like a煞神, his mouth wide open, unable to close it for a long time. If he had a physical body, his chin would have dropped in shock.

"This, this... This is truly magnificent, magnificent... Just how many people have you killed since you started cultivating, kid..." he murmured to himself.

Han Li didn't feel much different. He just felt that after these black mists manifested, he felt much lighter, but at the same time, a indescribable sense of violence arose in his heart.

"How is my baleful aura?" Suppressing the strangeness in his heart, Han Li looked at the old Daoist and asked.

"I've seen many people with baleful aura as thick and abundant as yours, but most of them have a strong bloody smell and appear dark red. Yours is very different. It's so purely black. You are teachable, truly teachable. I think that cultivating my method will reduce the drawbacks by at least half," the old Daoist praised repeatedly.

Hearing this, Han Li didn't feel any joy. He withdrew his hand seal, and the billowing black Qi that was still being released was immediately retracted into his body and disappeared.

"Why are you in such a hurry to retract it? It hasn't been completely released yet..." the old Daoist complained.

"Teach me your cultivation method," Han Li said.

"Have you decided to use it? You should think carefully, hehe..." the old Daoist asked with a smile.

Han Li didn't answer. He hadn't decided to use this method immediately. He just wanted to get the cultivation method first, and then decide whether to use it or not based on his cultivation progress.

After obtaining the baleful aura cultivation method called *Xuan Sha Ming Ling Gong* from the old Daoist, he sent his remnant soul back to the main hall of the underground palace where he originally was.

In order to help him stabilize his soul, he also temporarily placed the Soul Nourishing Furnace there.

Although he didn't know how much of what the old Daoist said was true, this person must know a lot about the冥寒仙宫. He guessed that a wisp of remnant soul couldn't pose much of a threat to him, so it would be better to keep him around for now.

After doing all of this, Han Li came to another spacious underground chamber. After closing the stone door, he began to take out sets of restriction formations and busied himself with setting them up.