Chapter 210: Preparation

Although his journey to the forbidden area only lasted about ten days, Han Li felt as if several years had passed. Thus, lying on the bed in the Hundred Herbs Garden, he felt immensely cozy and lingered in the moment.

From this life-threatening journey, he had finally returned alive and achieved his goals perfectly. Now, he fell into a peaceful, deep sleep, slumbering very sweetly and innocently. It seemed as if all worldly strife had, at that moment, drifted far away from the sleeping Han Li.

Han Li slept until noon the next day before waking up.

After waking up, Han Li felt invigorated and immediately began to plan for the future.

His first priority, naturally, was to quickly ripen the three main medicinal herbs in his possession for preservation. The arrangement of other auxiliary medicinal ingredients would, of course, come last. However, getting everything ready would not be a matter of just ten days or half a month. According to Han Li's estimate, it would take at least several years for everything to be properly prepared before he could officially begin refining pills.

With all the spiritual herbs in hand, Han Li was not in a hurry. Instead, he sorted through his other gains from the forbidden area.

As a result, he obtained over ten mid-grade spirit stones, several hundred low-grade spirit stones, a large pile of spirit artifacts of various grades, several pieces of centipede demon beast shells, various materials from the Ink Dragon, a useless silver sword, and so on.

However, besides these items, two others particularly caught Han Li's attention.

A doll holding a bow and arrow, and a radiant silver page.

This doll was primarily carved from wood, with all its features—ears, nose, mouth, and eyes—intact. It was incredibly lifelike, and its entire body was clad in remarkably realistic iron armor and helmet. Even the longbow in its hand was made of bronze. This item was the high-grade magic artifact, the "Puppet Archer," that Han Li had originally acquired from his sect.

After obtaining this magic artifact, Han Li had never taken it out to try it. This was because the artifact surprisingly required the "Spirit Splitting Secret Art," an art that necessitated injecting a wisp of spiritual sense into the puppet to control and use it.

But as for this Spirit Splitting method, who would cultivate it before reaching the Foundation Establishment stage? One must understand that only cultivators above the Foundation Establishment stage would have sufficient spiritual sense to endure the pain of splitting their consciousness. Otherwise, with the meager spiritual sense of the Qi Condensation stage, a person would likely collapse and go mad before even successfully splitting their consciousness.

What cultivators often referred to as using spiritual sense to survey surroundings or scan objects was not true spirit splitting; it was merely a minor externalization technique of their original spiritual sense. However, a spirit split after cultivating a secret art was equivalent to having one or even several conscious avatars, primarily used by a single person to control multiple artifacts. The more spirit splits one had, the more magic artifacts one could simultaneously manipulate.

Disciples in the Qi Condensation stage, when facing enemies, could at most use two magic artifacts simultaneously. Any more than that, and they would be unable to control them effectively. Otherwise, who wouldn't carry five or six magic artifacts and simply throw them all at an enemy upon encounter? While such an indiscriminate attack might be ineffective for true damage, it could certainly leave an opponent flustered for a good while!

Han Li held the doll in his hand, playing with it for a while before finally putting it down. He then picked up the silver page and began to examine it.

This silver page was a spoil of war Han Li had obtained from the barefoot man of the Giant Sword Sect. It was uneven, covered with many peculiar patterns, and appeared quite mysterious. Han Li pondered over it for a long time but still found no clues, so he had no choice but to temporarily set it aside.

And so, in the days that followed, Han Li spent his time researching the silver page while also waiting for news from the higher-ups, to see if his reward had indeed been discounted, just as the old man had said.

On the afternoon of the fourth day, Martial Uncle Wang and another, somewhat unfamiliar, steward came to find Han Li and indeed brought only one Foundation Establishment Pill as a reward. Furthermore, their explanation was essentially the same as the old man's, except they changed the excuse for Ancestor Li taking his spiritual herbs to "a disciple's filial duty."

Upon hearing this, Han Li secretly sneered a few times. But on the surface, he showed no objections at all, which greatly relieved the two stewards, who had initially expected to spend a lot of effort explaining. They then departed with smiles.

After watching the two of them leave, Han Li gave a self-mocking laugh. He then carefully put away the newly acquired Foundation Establishment Pill. It was not the right time to take the pill and attempt a breakthrough; it would be better to refine his own Foundation Establishment Pills first and then take them all together. After all, as long as he hadn't refined the pills himself, Han Li wouldn't be able to enter secluded cultivation with peace of mind.

And so, time passed, month by month. Three years flashed by in an instant, and Han Li's preparatory work for pill refining was finally all in order. During this not-so-short period, a few things also happened.

During this time, Junior Sister Chen, after taking a rewarded Foundation Establishment Pill and undergoing a full year of arduous cultivation, finally succeeded in establishing her foundation two years ago, entering the Foundation Establishment stage. However, her elder brother was not so lucky; even after taking two Foundation Establishment Pills from others, he still failed to break through and remained outside the Foundation Establishment stage. The eldest young master of the clan completely lost faith in the path of immortal cultivation and simply bid farewell to the sect, returning to his family to handle affairs.

Another thing that happened was that Han Li's reputation suddenly began to rise in Yellow Maple Valley, and he became somewhat well-known.

The story of his great fortune in the forbidden area, obtaining numerous spiritual herbs and being accepted as a nominal disciple by Ancestor Li, spread widely throughout the entire sect during his first year back from the forbidden area, almost causing other low-rank disciples to burn with jealousy. It wasn't until the second year that the matter gradually subsided.

However, there was also a small incident during this period. The old man named Ye, who had previously reneged on most of his belongings, suddenly sent someone to deliver all the previously owed items, and even a little extra! This made Han Li deeply appreciate the ease of "finding shade under a big tree," and he couldn't help but feel secretly pleased. It seemed his status as Ancestor Li's nominal disciple was indeed quite useful at times!

But speaking of this newly acknowledged master, Han Li truly had nothing to say! Besides sending a fellow nominal disciple to deliver a copy of the "Azure Essence Sword Art" cultivation method transcribed in his own hand, there had been no further news in these three years, as if he had completely forgotten about Han Li!

Aside from grumbling inwardly a few times, Han Li was actually quite pleased with the current situation. With his focus entirely on refining Foundation Establishment Pills, he naturally didn't want anyone to disturb him.

However, this nearly reclusive life finally came to an end today. Three days prior, Han Li had ripened the last required auxiliary spiritual herb. Everything was ready, lacking only the "east wind."

After several days of adjustment, Han Li gathered all the ripened spiritual herbs and headed towards Yue Lu Hall.

Yue Lu Hall was exactly as Han Li remembered it from several years ago. Of course, the guards of the teleportation array had been replaced by two other Foundation Establishment cultivators. But the same procedures and equally impatient expressions made Han Li secretly amused. Nevertheless, he successfully entered the interior of Yue Lu Hall.

Following an unmarked passage, Han Li saw the ugly man he greatly disliked, who was currently fast asleep in the stone room!

Han Li frowned, then after a moment of contemplation, he reached out and pulled out his bell-shaped magic artifact. He then took a few steps to the ugly man's side and lightly shook the bell beside his ear.

The sound of the bell was nothing to Han Li's ears. But it made the ugly man spring up instantly as if his rear end was on fire, muttering incoherently:

“What happened?! Who's there? Huh, what are you doing?”

The ugly man was clearly still half-asleep and surprisingly didn't speak rudely to Han Li for once! Seeing this, Han Li didn't stand on ceremony and immediately brought up his newly acknowledged master's name.

“I am a disciple under Ancestor Li Huayuan. I wish to use the subterranean fire. Please open the door, sir!”

“Ancestor Li?”

The ugly man had clearly heard of this Ancestor's great name and was instantly startled. He quickly assented repeatedly and turned to walk towards the stone door. However, after only two steps, he suddenly thought of something, then turned back and scrutinized Han Li with a suspicious gaze.

Han Li understood the man's thoughts the moment he saw this. After a moment of hesitation, he pulled out the copy of the "Azure Essence Sword Art" that Li Huayuan had sent someone to deliver and presented it before the ugly man. It bore Ancestor Li's personal signature.

To his surprise, not only did the ugly man know Ancestor Li's name, but he seemed to recognize the handwriting as well. After taking the book and glancing at it twice, he respectfully returned it to Han Li and immediately put on a smiling face, saying:

“May I know, Junior Brother, are you planning to refine artifacts or pills? I will certainly make the best arrangements for you!”

Han Li had originally intended to use Ancestor Li's name to see if he could receive any special treatment regarding the subterranean fire. Seeing that the other party thoughtfully offered it proactively, he relaxed his expression and said:

“I intend to refine some pills, so I hope to be arranged a subterranean fire room with relatively stable and gentle heat. I kindly ask for your assistance in this matter!”

Before coming here, Han Li had already inquired with the old man about the general situation of the subterranean fire area. He knew that usage of the subterranean fire was arranged by rooms, which was why he made this request.

“That's easy to arrange, I'll set it up for Junior Brother right away! However, about the processing fee...” The ugly man seemed to say with some difficulty.

Han Li smiled slightly upon hearing this. With a reach of his hand, he surprisingly pulled out a mid-grade spirit stone, handed it to the ugly man, and slowly said:

“Of course, I will pay the standard amount of spirit stones! Since this pill refining will take a long time, consider this mid-grade spirit stone a deposit. We can settle the remainder or refund the excess when I'm done!”