Although the trip to the Forbidden Lands lasted only about ten days, Han Li felt as if several years had passed. Therefore, lying on the bed in the Hundred Herb Garden felt extremely warm and nostalgic.
This life-risking journey, he had finally returned safely and perfectly achieved his goals. Now he slept peacefully and soundly, sleeping very sweetly and innocently! It seemed as though all worldly conflicts had instantly distanced themselves from Han Li's dreams.
This sleep lasted until noon the next day before Han Li woke up.
After waking, Han Li was full of energy and immediately began arranging his future plans!
The first thing he naturally needed to do was to quickly mature the three main herbs in his possession for preservation. As for the arrangement of other auxiliary herbs, that would naturally come last. However, preparing everything would not be a matter of ten days or half a month. According to Han Li's estimation, it would take at least several years to have everything ready and formally begin alchemy.
Therefore, Han Li, with all the spiritual herbs complete in hand, was in no hurry. Instead, he organized his other gains from the Forbidden Lands.
The result was over a dozen mid-grade spirit stones, several hundred low-grade spirit stones, plus a large pile of spiritual tools of various grades, several centipede monster beast shells, various materials from the Ink Flood Dragon, a useless silver sword, and so on.
However, besides these items, two things particularly caught Han Li's attention.
A doll holding a bow and arrow, and a silver-gleaming book page.
This doll was primarily carved from wood, complete with ears, nose, mouth, and eyes. Lifelike. And it was entirely clad in extremely realistic iron armor and helmet. Even the long bow in its hands was made of bronze. This item was the high-grade magical tool "Puppet Archer" that Han Li had previously taken from his sect.
After obtaining this magical tool, Han Li had never taken it out to test. Because this tool actually required the soul-division technique, requiring a wisp of divine consciousness to be injected into the puppet before it could be controlled and used.
But this soul-division method—who would cultivate it before reaching the Foundation Establishment stage? Only cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage and above would have sufficient divine consciousness to withstand the pain of soul division. Otherwise, the bit of divine consciousness at the Qi Refining stage would likely cause the person to completely collapse and go mad before successfully dividing their soul.
And what cultivators often refer to as using divine consciousness to examine surroundings and scan objects was not true soul division, but merely a minor technique of outward projection of existing divine consciousness. But after cultivating the secret technique, soul division was equivalent to having one or even several avatars of divine consciousness, primarily used for one person controlling multiple tools. The more soul divisions one had, the more magical tools one could simultaneously control.
Disciples at the Qi Refining stage could typically only use two magical tools simultaneously when facing enemies. If they tried to use more, they wouldn't be able to control them freely. Otherwise, who didn't have five or six magical tools on them? When encountering an enemy, they could just throw everything out at once—even if ineffective, it could keep the opponent busy for quite a while!
Han Li played with this doll in his hands for quite a while before setting it down. Then he picked up the silver book page to examine.
This silver page was a war trophy Han Li had obtained from the barefoot man of the Giant Sword Gate. It had raised and indented patterns, many strange designs that looked quite mysterious! Han Li pondered it for a long time but still had no clue, so he temporarily gave up.
Just like that, in the following days, Han Listudying the silver page while waiting for news from above, to see if it was really as the little old man had said—that his reward had been discounted!
On the afternoon of the fourth day, Uncle-Master Wang and another unfamiliar steward came to find Han Li, and indeed only brought a Foundation Establishment Pill reward. And the words they spoke were basically not much different from the little old man's! The only change was that the explanation about Ancestor Li taking his spiritual herbs was altered to being a disciple's filial duty.
Han Li listened and secretly sneered a few times. But on the surface, he showed no objection at all, making the two stewards—who had expected to need great effort to explain—breathe a sigh of relief, then leave with smiles.
After watching the two leave, Han Li laughed at himself, then carefully stored the newly obtained Foundation Establishment Pill. Now was not the time to take pills for a breakthrough attempt. It would be better to refine his own Foundation Establishment Pills first and take them together. After all, until he finished refining the pills, Han Li couldn't rest easy in seclusion!
Just like that, time passed month by month. Three years flew by, and Han Li's preparatory work before alchemy was finally all complete. During this not-short period, several things had occurred.
During this time, Junior-Sister Chen took one of the rewarded Foundation Establishment Pills. After a full year of bitter cultivation, she finally succeeded in Foundation Establishment two years ago, entering the Foundation Establishment stage. But her brother had poor luck—even after taking two Foundation Establishment Pills, he still failed the breakthrough, lingering outside the Foundation Establishment stage. The eldest son of the clan completely lost faith in the Immortal Path and simply bid farewell to the sect, returning to the family to manage affairs.
Another thing was that Han Li's reputation suddenly began to rise at Yellow Maple Valley, becoming somewhat well-known!
The story about his great fortune in the Forbidden Lands, obtaining numerous spiritual herbs, and being taken as a nominal disciple by Ancestor Li—during the first year after returning from the Forbidden Lands, the entire sect was buzzing with it, nearly driving other junior disciples to jealousy-induced madness. It wasn't until the second year that this matter gradually calmed down.
However, during this period there was a small episode. That Elder Ye who had previously withheld most of his things suddenly sent someone to deliver everything previously owed all at once, and even slightly more! This let Han Li greatly experience the convenience of being under a big tree's shade, couldn't help but feel secretly pleased! It seemed that his identity as Ancestor Li's nominal disciple was sometimes quite useful!
But speaking of this newly acknowledged master, Han Li really had nothing to say! Besides sending a fellow nominal disciple to deliver a copy of the "Azure Origin Sword Art" technique personally transcribed by him, in these three years there had been no other news whatsoever—as if he had long forgotten all about Han Li!
Besides a few grumbles, Han Li was actually quite content with the current situation. He was now fully focused on refining Foundation Establishment Pills, and naturally didn't want anyone to disturb him.
But this nearly semi-reclusive life finally ended today. Three days ago, Han Li had matured the last auxiliary spiritual herb needed. Everything was ready, only waiting for the east wind!
After adjusting for several days, Han Li gathered all the matured spiritual herbs and headed toward Yuelu Hall!
Yuelu Hall was exactly the same as when Han Li had visited years ago. Of course, the guards at the teleportation array had been replaced by two other Foundation Establishment cultivators. But the same procedures, the same impatient expressions, made Han Li secretly amused. But regardless, he smoothly entered the interior of Yuelu Hall.
And along the unmarked corridor, Han Li saw the ugly man he greatly disliked, who was snoring loudly inside a stone house!
Han Li furrowed his brow, pondered for a moment, then reached out and took out the bell magical tool. Then he walked a few steps to the ugly man's side and lightly shook the bell near his ear.
The bell's sound was nothing to Han Li's ears. But it made the ugly man leap up as if his buttocks were on fire, immediately shouting incoherently:
"What happened! Who is it? Huh, what are you doing?"
The ugly man was obviously still half-asleep and actually didn't immediately use coarse language toward Han Li! Seeing this, Han Li didn't stand on ceremony and immediately brought up his new master's title.
"I am a disciple of Ancestor Li Huayuan. I need to borrow the earth fire, so please open the door!"
"Ancestor Li?"
The ugly man had obviously heard of this ancestor's great name and immediately jumped in fright, quickly nodding repeatedly and turning toward the stone door. But after taking just two steps, he suddenly remembered something and turned back to examine Han Li with suspicious eyes.
Seeing this scene, Han Li immediately understood the other party's thoughts. After hesitating for a moment, he took out the "Azure Origin Sword Art" that Ancestor Li had sent someone to deliver and placed it before the ugly man's eyes. It bore Ancestor Li's personal signature.
Unexpectedly, the ugly man not only knew Ancestor Li's name but seemed to recognize the handwriting as well. After taking the book and glancing at it, he respectfully returned it to Han Li, then immediately put on a smile and said:
"I wonder, does this junior brother intend to refine tools or pills? I will definitely arrange things well for you!"
Han Li had originally planned to rely on Ancestor Li's name to see if he could get some special treatment regarding the earth fire. Seeing the other party had the sense to offer first, his expression softened slightly:
"I intend to refine some pills, so I hope to arrange a room with relatively stable and gentle earth fire. Please take care of this!"
Before coming, Han Li had already inquired about the general situation of the earth fire place from the little old man, knowing that rooms were assigned to people to use the earth fire, which was why he said this.
"That's easy to handle. I will arrange it for junior brother immediately! However, there's the procedure fee..." The ugly man said, appearing somewhat troubled.
Han Li heard this and smiled slightly, actually taking out a mid-grade spirit stone and handing it to the ugly man, speaking slowly:
"How many spirit stones need to be paid, of course I will pay according to the standard! Because this alchemy session will be longer, this mid-grade spirit stone counts as a deposit. When the time comes, any excess will be refunded or shortages made up!"