Han Li, flying at full speed, soon arrived back at his cave dwelling.
Without a word, he first retrieved the jade slip containing formation array instructions that Qi Yunxiao had given him, then immersed his spiritual sense into it, carefully studying the usage of the formation array artifacts.
Han Li intended to put everything else aside and set up the protective formation around his cave dwelling first. After all, the battle between those people had taken place far too close to his location, leaving him with a profound sense of insecurity!
The Inverted Five Elements Formation was extremely simple and straightforward to set up.
Following the precise positions, he planted the formation flags and buried the formation plates in the ground, then arranged several spirit stones in a small formation pattern as required, embedding them at the formation's core to provide sufficient spiritual energy for the entire array.
With this, the great formation could be immediately activated. The master of the formation need only understand a few simple control techniques to use the main formation flag kept in hand to drive the formation through various array variations, trapping and confusing enemies.
Han Li followed the instructions exactly—planting what needed to be planted, burying what needed to be buried—then gritted his teeth and embedded several mid-grade spirit stones. This was half of all his spirit stones! It made his heart ache for quite some time. But to ensure the formation's power was not diminished, he had no choice but to bear the pain of parting with them!
Although Han Li could easily exchange sufficiently aged spirit herbs for a large quantity of spirit stones at the marketplace, doing so would multiply the chances of someone discovering his secret and capturing him for interrogation. If he wasn't cautious enough, just like the scene he had witnessed today, someday he might be the one surrounded and attacked! Han Li thought with resignation.
Testing the formation's operation, it seemed to work quite well. But its actual power in trapping and defending against enemies could only be verified when intruders attacked. However, the mere fact that it could shroud several dozen mu of land around his cave dwelling while appearing completely normal from the outside made Han Li feel it was well worth the cost!
Only now feeling at ease, Han Li returned to his bedchamber and began to contemplate his cultivation.
To have any chance of reaching the Core Formation stage by heaven's favor, one needed to possess an exceptional cultivation technique, aptitude found in perhaps one in ten thousand, and tremendous fortune, among other conditions—only then would there be even a sliver of hope.
The difficulty of Foundation Establishment paled in comparison! After all, with sufficiently good aptitude and one or two Foundation Establishment Pills, the probability of successfully establishing one's foundation was still quite high.
But for Core Formation, even with all the above conditions met, the number of cultivators who actually succeeded remained vanishingly small. Thus, the appearance of every Core Formation cultivator was almost cause for a sect to hold a grand celebration, and the news would quickly spread throughout the local cultivation world.
The reason the Yan Yue Sect had become the number one immortal sect in the Kingdom of Yue was not only because they had over a thousand Foundation Establishment disciples, far exceeding the other sects, but also because their Core Formation cultivators vastly outnumbered those of the other factions—nearly ten in total! This alone was enough to look down upon the other six great sects!
Han Li knew that his aptitude was abysmal, certainly far inferior to other Foundation Establishment disciples. As for cultivation techniques, he had obtained only a rather useless "Azure Essence Sword Art" that absolutely could not be cultivated! Fortune was an ethereal thing—one could only rely on personal luck.
From this perspective, it seemed that everything was currently working against Han Li!
But after careful analysis, Han Li concluded that although his aptitude was terrible to the extreme, possessing the mysterious small bottle capable of accelerating the growth of spirit herbs and the ability to refine pills meant this was not an insurmountable shortcoming. Fortune was beyond human control, so he didn't need to consider it. The only path he could now strive upon to increase his chances of Core Formation was to find a high-quality cultivation technique suited to his own practice.
The moment this thought arose, the first person Han Li thought of was his nominal master, Li Huayuan.
Since the other party had accepted him as a registered disciple, shouldn't he now impart some cultivation techniques to him? After all, the other had already succeeded in Core Formation. Perhaps he could offer some guidance in selecting a technique!
Thinking of this, Han Li decided to return to Yellow Maple Valley first thing tomorrow morning to inquire about his master's cave dwelling location and seek his instruction! The other likely did not yet know that he had succeeded in Foundation Establishment.
Come to think of it, it was truly laughable! Since accepting him, Li Huayuan had never once summoned him. For several years, he had acted as if this registered disciple didn't exist at all, leaving Han Li feeling quite bitter about it!
Of course, in his frustration, Han Li wouldn't take the initiative to seek out the man and make himself appear too presumptuous!
But now that he had succeeded in Foundation Establishment, he truly needed to find this master of his! Yet here he was, the disciple, still in the dark and having to ask outsiders for information—how utterly embarrassing!
Han Li mocked himself for a while, then with a bitter smile slowly drifted off to sleep on his stone bed.
He didn't know how long he had slept when a violent tremor suddenly jolted him awake from his dreams. Still groggy, he hadn't yet grasped the situation and nearly dismissed the shaking as his own imagination.
But another violent tremor came, and the last vestiges of sleep vanished from Han Li's mind. For besides the ground shaking, there were also thunderous explosions coming from outside the cave dwelling—someone had clearly touched his restrictions and was forcibly attacking his great formation's defenses!
Han Li was both alarmed and furious! He immediately sprinted out of his bedchamber in a few quick strides, rushing toward the cave dwelling's entrance.
When the dense barrage of light arrows and light beam attacks outside the cave, along with the mechanical puppets filling the sky above, came into view, Han Li was so startled he nearly bit his tongue!
What was going on? He had deliberately stayed out of yesterday's affair to avoid attracting trouble. But now that he had returned to his dwelling, how had they come knocking at his door instead? And judging by their aggressive demeanor, this didn't seem like a misunderstanding. Had they placed some kind of tracking device on him when he flew away yesterday?
In the critical moment, Han Li's mind became remarkably clear, and various strategies for dealing with the situation surged to the forefront of his thoughts.
"Person inside, listen well! Hand over the one who fled here! As long as you deliver him to us, we shall never trouble this dwelling's master again! Why must you offend the people of our Thousand Bamboo Sect and shield another's disaster for them!"
Perhaps seeing that their fierce assault had been completely neutralized by the Inverted Five Elements Formation's restrictions, producing no effect whatsoever, a man's persuasive voice rang out from the sky—it was none other than Huang Long's voice.
Hearing this, Han Li couldn't help but look outward.
He saw that at the spot where the most puppets hovered in the sky, a massive emerald-green bamboo raft floated in midair. Six or seven people in variously colored robes stood upon it, with Huang Long—the one who had spoken—positioned at the very front. Behind him, aside from the man and woman Han Li had seen before, there were four additional lean men who looked exactly alike—they were the rarely seen quadruplet brothers! It seemed reinforcements from the Thousand Bamboo Sect had arrived.
When Han Li heard the demand to hand someone over, he froze in confusion and peered into the center of the Inverted Five Elements Formation. There, he saw a person lying face down near the cave entrance, motionless—whether alive or dead was unknown!
Seeing this person, all of Han Li's confusion was resolved, but his heart sank even further!
Why did this Senior Brother Lin have to stumble into his cave dwelling territory of all places, bringing such enormous trouble to his doorstep? How was he supposed to deal with this? However, seeing the formidable power of this incomplete great formation—capable of blocking even such a ferocious assault from outside—Han Li felt considerably more at ease than he had at first.
Frowning slightly, Han Li took a formation flag in hand, parted the formation, and walked toward Senior Brother Lin.
When Han Li exerted both hands to flip Senior Brother Lin's body over from behind and looked carefully at his face, his expression turned extremely ugly, and he couldn't utter a single word!
What was there to say to a dead man? At this moment, Senior Brother Lin's face was pitch black, blood flowed from all seven orifices, and he had long since stopped breathing!
Han Li sighed, hesitated for a moment, then reached toward the man's chest. He wanted to see if he could find the storage bag containing the puppets—Han Li was now greatly interested in this tactic of overwhelming enemies with numbers.
But just as Han Li's hand lifted a corner of the man's robes, a green-glowing sphere of light suddenly shot out from within, hurtling straight toward Han Li's face with the speed of a shooting star. Han Li cried out in alarm and stumbled backward!
However, just before the light sphere made contact with—or nearly made contact with—Han Li's face, his right hand suddenly flashed with white light and, with lightning speed, lunged forward, snatching the green light sphere firmly into his grip. The sphere squealed in his grasp, emitting sounds of painful whimpering!
"Junior Brother, spare me! Senior Brother was also harmed by enemies and forced into this! If you're willing to let me go, I, Lin, guarantee I'll give you an unimaginable treasure!" Senior Brother Lin's pleading voice suddenly echoed in Han Li's mind, offering lavish rewards.
"You were trying to seize my body just now, weren't you?" Han Li didn't ask about the treasure, but instead said with a dark expression.
"Th—that's... indeed so! But I, Lin, was merely confused for a moment. I will certainly compensate Junior Brother generously for the fright! I hope Junior Brother will be magnanimous and not hold it against your Senior Brother!" Senior Brother Lin's somewhat embarrassed voice came through, repeatedly apologizing.